Orange County Grand Jury
• 2024-2025
• Agency Response
Response to:
Is Voting Integrity Alive and Well in Orange County?
Homelessness: Is Orange County Mo ving in the Right Direction?
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 7 findings
F1
Despite its efforts and substantial resources, Orange County’s current strategy for decreasing homelessness has been largely unsuccessful.
No recommendations for this finding
F2
Orange County’s contract with 2-1-1 Orange County provides for comprehensive information and 24/7 telephone referral service for households in need. However, its services are not well known by the population that could benefit from their assistance.
No recommendations for this finding
F3
Extensive waiting periods for people seeking Section 8 (Housing Choice) vouchers and lack of affordable housing in general are major contributing factors to the growing number of people experiencing homelessness and housing instability in Orange County.
No recommendations for this finding
F4
While Orange County directs a limited amount of resources to prevention, its programs to address homelessness are primarily reactionary, which over time is more costly than preventive interventions.
No recommendations for this finding
F5
The Commission to Address Homelessness has not provided the Board of Supervisors with sufficient recommendations on homelessness prevention efforts, focusing instead on reactive strategies.
No recommendations for this finding
F6
Tenant-based vouchers are federally funded and administered by local Housing Authorities. They are a faster and more cost-effective way to house those experiencing homelessness. These vouchers are often unavailable and insufficiently funded, leaving many people experiencing homelessness, including those who have completed all the requirements for vouchers, without housing options.
No recommendations for this finding
F7
Orange County’s elderly and disabled residents are an increasing segment of the homeless population. They rely heavily on tenant-based vouchers to maintain stable housing. This fixed- income population will be disproportionately affected by any reduction in funding to these programs.
No recommendations for this finding
Conclusions 1
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CL1The 2024–2025 Orange County Grand Jury's report on homelessness presents a broad but not exhaustive review of Countywide efforts to address this challenging, ongoing crisis. While it acknowledges that all involved entities, including government agencies, nonprofits, and homeless service providers, are working to reduce homelessness, their efforts are often siloed and underfunded. These factors have limited the potential for an effective, countywide strategy. Despite strategic systems like the Continuum of Care, the number of households experiencing homelessness in Orange County continues to rise. This report demonstrates that emergency and crisis-focused responses such as shelters, rapid rehousing and encampment clearances, are not only costly but have proven largely ineffective in reducing homelessness. While prevention strategies—affordable housing development, identification of households at risk for losing their housing, and early intervention—are more cost effective in the long run, the County’s current system remains mostly reactive. Structural barriers, limited, inconsistent, or overly restrictive funding, excessive and inconsistent building restrictions, and lack of coordination across agencies, continue to hinder meaningful, sustained progress. A shift towards long-term solutions is essential to addressing the root causes of homelessness and creating lasting change. It is both fiscally and morally imperative that Orange County shift its strategic focus from reactive to preventive actions in addressing homelessness. Despite the County’s substantial and clearly well-meaning investment in emergency shelters and crisis-focused interventions, these measures alone will never solve a problem that is rooted in systemic inequity and the astronomical cost of housing in Orange County. Numerous non-profits across the County have already demonstrated—albeit on a limited scale— that preventative strategies are not only feasible, but effective. More importantly, enabling people to remain housed through preventative measures gives the most vulnerable members of society, such as the elderly and disabled and others on fixed incomes, the option of safely and humanely remaining in their homes, even if their income fails to rise. With sufficient and sustained funding, these efforts could be expanded significantly, reducing the inflow of households into homelessness and alleviating pressure on an overburdened emergency response system. Prevention is a crucial element in reducing homelessness.
Agency Responses 2
Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.