Current Statistics on Homelessness in Orange County

*From the OC Community Indicators Report 2008

How is Orange County Doing?
Orange County’s Housing Wage rates increased in 2007:
• The hourly wage needed for a one-bedroom apartment rose from $23.81 in 2006 to $25.57 in 2007 – equivalent to an annual income
of $53,185.
• Among state and national peer metropolitan areas, Orange County has the highest Housing Wage (less affordable rental housing).
• According to employment projections, most of the occupations likely to have large gains in the county’s high-growth industries (services,
manufacturing, and retail trade) have hourly wages far below the Housing Wage.

(from page 26)

**

MORE FAMILIES ARE LIVING IN OVERCROWDED CONDITIONS

Description of Indicator
This indicator measures Orange County families’ progress toward
housing stability by tracking availability of rental assistance,
residential overcrowding, and homelessness. For additional countywide
housing trends see Housing Demand, Housing Affordability,
and Rental Affordability.

Why is it Important?
High housing costs in Orange County force many families into
overcrowded living conditions, which places stress on personal
relationships, housing stock, public services and infrastructure.
When sharing housing is not an option, or other factors such as
foreclosure, financial loss, or domestic violence arise, the result can
be homelessness.

How is Orange County Doing?
Residents might have to wait as long as seven years for rental
assistance vouchers unless conditions or funding levels change:
• In 2005, when the Orange County Housing Authority’s Section 8 waiting list was opened for the first time since 2001, 18,600 families applied for vouchers to help defray high housing costs.
• Santa Ana and Anaheim each have their own housing authority
and their vouchers are similarly in high demand.
• The voucher supply is limited because housing authorities have
not been given the opportunity to apply to the federal government
for additional housing vouchers since 2003.

In response to No Child Left Behind, public school districts now
report the number of students identified as homeless, which the law
defines as children living in shelters or unsheltered in cars, parks or
campgrounds, as well as students living in motels or
overcrowded conditions:
• In 2006/07, 13,130 Orange County students primarily in grades K-12 were identified as homeless or unstably housed.1
• This is a 13% increase over the past year.
• Families living doubled- or tripled-up in someone else’s home due to economic hardship are the largest cohort with 11,639 students living in this kind of overcrowded condition.
• Orange County school districts report an additional 813 students live in motels, 473 live in shelters, and 144 students live unsheltered in cars, parks or campgrounds.


(FROM PAGE 49)

DO YOU SEE ME?

CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGE



CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGE

THE INVISIBLE HOMELESS OF ORANGE COUNTY

As Jobs Vanish, Motel Rooms Become Home

*An article on the motel homeless families in the OC published in the NY Times

As Jobs Vanish, Motel Rooms Become Home
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: March 10, 2009

COSTA MESA, Calif. — Greg Hayworth, 44, graduated from Syracuse University and made a good living in his home state, California, from real estate and mortgage finance. Then that business crashed, and early last year the bank foreclosed on the house his family was renting, forcing their eviction.

Now the Hayworths and their three children represent a new face of homelessness in Orange County: formerly middle income, living week to week in a cramped motel room.

"I owe it to my kids to get out of here," Mr. Hayworth said, recalling the night they saw a motel neighbor drag a half-naked woman out the door while he beat her.

As the recession has deepened, longtime workers who lost their jobs are facing the terror and stigma of homelessness for the first time, including those who have owned or rented for years. Some show up in shelters and on the streets, but others, like the Hayworths, are the hidden homeless — living doubled up in apartments, in garages or in motels, uncounted in federal homeless data and often receiving little public aid.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE
HERE

EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE LINKED ABOVE:

"...like many other families, they cannot muster the security deposit and other upfront costs of renting a new place."

"Still, a source of turmoil for motel families is a California rule that after 28 days, residents are considered tenants, gaining legal rights of occupancy. Some motels force families to move every month, while others make families stay in a different room for a day or two."

"(Motel families) are especially prevalent in Orange County, which has high rents, a shortage of public housing and a surplus of older motels that once housed Disneyland visitors."

“The motels have become the de facto low-income housing of Orange County,” said Wally Gonzales, director of Project Dignity, one of dozens of small charities and church groups that have emerged to assist families, usually helping a few dozen each and relying on donations of food, clothing and toys."

"(These motels) look like any other modestly priced stopover inland from the ritzy beach towns. But walk inside and the perception immediately changes.

In the evening, the smell of pasta sauce cooked on hot plates drifts through half-open doors; in the morning, children leave to catch school buses. Families of three, six or more are squeezed into a room, one child doing homework on a bed, jostled by another watching television. Children rotate at bedtime, taking their turns on the floor. Some families, like the Malpicas, in a motel in Anaheim, commandeer a closet for baby cribs."

LOCAL HOUSE CHURCH HELPS SENIOR WOMAN

*from the OC Register article HERE

Miracle on Piper Place by Lori Basheda (OCRegister.com)

It all began the day the fires raced up over the hills toward Piper Place. Suddenly a megaphone was blaring: neighbors had 10 minutes to evacuate.
Darcie Campbell and her husband Ken scrambled to get in the car when they saw a neighbor walking slowly to her car two doors down.

The Campbells knew that Sandy Maitlen lived in that house, the one with the overgrown weeds. But no one ever really saw Sandy. And the less people saw of her, the more the tales grew. "We all sort of shunned her," Darcie says.

But now here she was walking to her car in the smoke, looking shaken. Ken ran over: Do you need help? he asked.

And she started crying.

After the fires, after everyone on Piper Place was safe to move back, Darcie and Ken made a decision that they would get to know Sandy. “And actually, our minds were blown,” she says. It turns out Sandy, now 66, is a perfectly friendly lady who has lived on Piper Place since the mid ’70s. Divorced, she raised her two children alone. One daughter died after surgery five years ago. She now has a grown daugther who lives with her, along with a granddaughter.

One day Sandy let Darcie into her house. ”That this was in my neighborhood, on my street, and we never even noticed her need,” Darcie says, trailing off.

In one bathroom there was a hole in the floor, no toilet. In another bathroom, the toilet overflows. There were pipes leaking in the ceiling, black mold, no heat, two broken windows and the front door was hung upside down, on one hinge.

Darcie is part of a Thursday night fellowship group that meets behind Sandy’s house at the home of Julie and Noel Cruz. ”Can we all come together?” she asked them.

And come together they did. This weekend about 50 people are converging on Sandy’s house, carrying cans of paint and tool boxes.

"It's sort of unbelievable," Darcie says. "People used to tell stories if they saw a shadow in her house, and behind that was this very sweet lady."
Sandy chuckles at the idea. "I just tried to do things myself. I didn't want to be a bother to people, so we kind of kept to ourselves."

And now: "It is just beyond my wildest imagination," she says. "I'm just overwhelmed with all the goodness and kindness."

If you want to join the gang of people helping Sandy or donate anything, call Darcie’s daughter Stacie at 714-507-0859 or staciedthomas@yahoo.com

**
NOTE: Some of Darcie's neighbors and friends from a house church on her street will be painting, sanding and doing an "Extreme Home Makeover" of Sandy's house from March 20th - 22nd. For more information and to help out go HERE

Orange County poised to lose 43,200 jobs in 2009

February 24th, 2009, 1:30 pm
by Sarah Tully

Orange County is projected to lose about 43,200 jobs this year and employment will continue to drop in 2010, but at a slower pace, according to a new report on the economy.

The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. predicts a bleak situation for Southern California, including Orange County, in its 2009-2010 Economic Forecast and Industry Outlook released last week.

This year's 2.9% Orange County job loss is expected to mostly be in finance and insurance, construction and retail, said the forecast. Next year, LAEDC expects Orange County to continue to bleed jobs, the employment loss will slow to 0.9% or 12,400 positions.

Orange County was hit hard by the collapse of the subprime lending industry, as well as a slowdown in tourism and the flattening of new home construction projects, said LAEDC economist Jack Kyser, who oversaw the forecast.

"That's why we're rather bearish about the economy in 2009," Kyser said.

Earlier Orange County economic forecasts ranged widely about the depth and length of the recession here:

Chapman University estimated a loss of 9,000 Orange County jobs this year in a report released in December.

"Negative forces" that will continue to be a drag on Orange County:

*A downturn in tourism.
*A loss of manufacturing jobs.
*A decline in non-residential construction.
*A decrease in new home construction permits.

LAEDC estimated the loss of nonfarm jobs should bottom out statewide by the end of 2009, dropping by about 3% for the year. The California unemployment rate could reach 10.5%.

READ FULL ARTICLE ALONG WITH MORE INFO
HERE

O.C. Home Affordabilty 9th Worst in Nation

February 23rd, 2009, 5:56 pm
by Jon Lansner/ocregister.com

An Orange County home was four times as affordable in 2008's fourth quarter as it was a year earlier — as measured by an index of the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo Bank.

Still, O.C.'s "affordability" was 9th worst among 222 big U.S. communities tracked by NAHB/Wells. (We were 11th worst in the third quarter!)

Details on O.C. stats from NAHB/Wells:

Just 33.5% of the homes sold in O.C. in the fourth quarter were affordable to the typical local household. (A year ago, 8.4% of the homes were "affordable.")

A 27% price drop in O.C. homes in the past year clearly drove increased local affordability.

So did a 7% increase in local incomes, according to NAHB/Wells math.
Nationally, 62.4% of U.S. homes selling were "affordable" as 2008 ended. New York City metro area was least affordable at 14%; Indianapolis was best at 93%.

Full Article HERE