Where There's a Will, There's a Way: Housing Orange County's Chronically Homeless*

Homelessness in Orange County is a regional problem requiring regional approaches and solutions. The City of Fullerton agrees with the finding.

The lack of a regional plan designating specific development goals for Permanent Supportive Housing contributes to an insufficient number of available units to house the chronically homeless. The City of Fullerton agrees with the finding. While cities have land use authority, such authority does not translate into a city's ability to develop Permanent Supportive Housing as cities are not developers. Planning Commissions and City Councils have discretionary approval over submitted development projects. In Orange County, there are no public housing developments; however, cities may provide funding assistance if available or fee deferrals to assist in providing a public subsidy. While cities generally do not have housing departments, the County's Community Services Department has both a Homeless Prevention division and Housing Development division to assist cities, developers, and non-profits with additional subsidies based on their elevated funding sources. A regional plan designating specific development goals for Permanent Supportive Housing would greatly assist the County and city on many fronts to assist chronically homeless.

Cities' reluctance to provide sites for Permanent Supportive Housing development has contributed to overcrowded emergency shelters and an increased unsheltered homeless population. THE EDUCATION COMMUNITY 303 West Commonwealth Avenue, Fullerton, California 92832-1775 (714) 738-6311 • Fax (714) 738-6758 • [email protected] • www.cityoffullerton.com Response to 2017-18 Grand Jury Report on Homelessness The City of Fullerton disagrees wholly or partially with the finding. Cities have land use authority but, except in rare cases, do not have actual property to provide for Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) developments. If a suitable site is brought forward to a city through a development plan review process that requires any granting of entitlements, a planning commission or City Council often face disagreement and vocal opposition by neighboring residents over proposed PSH developments. Thus, to state that cities' reluctance to provide sites for PSH contributes to overcrowded emergency shelters and an increase in the unsheltered population is misleading. Cities, in general, do not at the current time have specific funding sources for homeless services or emergency shelters, either acquisition, development, or operations. Cities do not, at all, have funding for mental health related issues. A player absent in the Grand Jury Report is the State of California and, specifically, the State Legislature and Governor, in providing necessary legislation to address the explosion of mental health issues amongst the homeless population to include the ability for local governments to adequately address a person with mental health issues to care for themselves under conservatorship and those with substance abuse problems to overcome their addiction when they are unwilling or unable on their own.

Service Planning area meetings have successfully brought together city, county and non-profit entities to share information on homeless issues, but have not fostered decision making or action. The City of Fullerton disagrees wholly or partially with the finding. Having three Service Planning Areas does provide for better economies of scale while keeping the overall group size - 10-12 cities versus all 34 - more manageable. The Service Planning Area meetings have helped coordinate efforts and are better for sharing information to achieve more localized successes. However, as with Finding 4, decision making and action is reliant upon funding sources to implement and cities do not generally have specific funding sources at this time for solutions to homeless issues.

NIMBYism has impeded the creation of housing for the homeless, including Permanent Supportive Housing, in the County of Orange. The City of Fullerton agrees with the finding.

Orange County cities and the County have engaged in blaming and finger pointing, hampering the collaborative efforts needed to site, finance, and maintain Permanent Supportive Housing. The City of Fullerton disagrees wholly or partially with the finding. This finding assumes that only cities and the County site, finance, and maintain permanent supportive housing units. Currently, there are no publicly managed (maintained) housing units in Orange County. In Orange County, cities, through the prior use of redevelopment funds, participated in partially funding the private (for-profit and non-profit) development and management of affordable housing units to include permanent support housing. In the City of Fullerton, prior to the dissolution of its redevelopment agency, the City/RDA issued a $25 million housing bond to provide financing assistance for over 150 units of affordable housing, to include PSH units. Several future funding opportunities (such as SB 2) will provide critical funding to cities to assist private development and management of affordable housing and PSH units. Response to 2017-18 Grand Jury Report on Homelessness While Orange County cities and the County have come from miles apart in the last 9 months regarding homeless solutions, prior to this collaboration, and for the last 20 years, the County was the lead for homeless services and served as the planning agency. Cities, through elected official participation on commissions, and City Managers and Community Development staff, participated to add regional voices, but the County was the primary receiver of State and Federal funding for homeless assistance. Regardless, homelessness is not a result of any one action or inaction, it is a complex issue resulting from economic condition, housing affordability, substance abuse, mental health, and many other factors. The absence of an affirmative goal of a specific unit increase in PSH units, the elimination of funding through the dissolution of redevelopment agencies, and the fact that cities cannot force development are some of the reason that have 'hampered' development.

Cities have taken a silo approach to developing Permanent Supportive Housing, resulting in ineffective leveraging and pooling of funds across municipal borders. The City of Fullerton disagrees wholly or partially with the finding. Until recently, there have been no stated goals or unit counts for Permanent Supportive Housing units. Cities have not been in the position to direct private developers to build PSH units as cities do not generate specific development plans, but maintain the discretionary review process over such plans when a private developer approaches a city. A city will work with a developer to seek additional subsidized funding to make PSH units possible, but without a city controlled funding stream, such as former Low & Moderate Income Housing funds derived from redevelopment agencies, a city does not control the development of the housing product. With the growing acceptance of the need for PSH units, specifically the goal of developing 2,700 units throughout Orange County, cities, the County, and the private development community have come together for better planning across jurisdictions which will provide for better leveraging of scarce funds.

There is no established independent leadership body in the County empowered to address regional homeless issues in an effective manner. The City of Fullerton agrees with the finding.