How is Orange County Addressing Homelessness?

South Orange County SPA cities lack low-threshold emergency shelters resulting in more homeless encampments and individuals living on the streets. Response: The City disagrees partially with this finding. Irvine agrees that South County SPA cities lack low-threshold emergency shelters. However, the causal link between the lack of the shelters and the number of homeless encampments in those cities is less clear. In fact, the number of homeless individuals countywide has decreased (per 2022 count). Further, the City of Irvine continues to provide outreach, diversion and housing placement services resulting in less south county homelessness.