Orange County is second only to Los Angeles for the largest number of homeless people in the State of California. The difference is that homelessness in LA County is caused by drug addiction, mental illness or substance abuse related factors.
In Orange County, out of our 35,000 homeless, 80% of them were forced into this lifestyle because of the lack of affordable housing and rent controls.
Think about that. 80% of the people in Orange County who are currently homeless could be living in an apartment anywhere else in the Nation. It's only because of the cost of housing here that they remain homeless.
We make our own homeless.
This means we can also un-make them.
Here are a few more statistics courtesy of the County of Orange Community Indicators Report:
* There are 5,389 homeless children in Orange County under the age of six.
* There are less than 900 emergency shelter beds in all of Orange County.
* There are 30,000 homeless who need a place to sleep each night.
* 60% of the homeless in Orange County go regularly without meals.
* 81% of the homeless in Orange County feel severe hunger each night.
* Hundreds of families in Orange County face a dilemma. Living on an extremely limited income forces them to choose between food on the table and a table on which to eat food. They can eat or they can pay rent, but not both.
-kg
TELL ME YOUR STORY
1 day ago
2 comments:
Those statistics are not listed in the community indicators report.
Most of these statistics are in fact supported by the data in the annual OC Community Indicators report.
The 2009 report does not contain this specific information as subsequent reports have begun to exclude any specific reference to homelessness. However, the 2005, 2006 and 2007 reports do have this information and even the 2008 and 2009 reports contain enough information (under Housing, Rental & Home Sales, Employment and Children).
Post a Comment