OC supervisors to vote on a winter hotel voucher program for unhoused families

Orange County supervisors on Tuesday are set to vote on a program to give unhoused families with young children vouchers to use toward hotel rooms after deciding to forgo opening additional winter shelter spaces.

The program would cover applicants in Orange County’s second district, which encompasses Santa Ana and parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange, and Tustin.

Late last year, Orange County officials said they will not open additional winter shelter spaces for the unhoused community and instead rely on existing beds. County officials told LAist they are transitioning from a countywide singular shelter to a city-based approach.

But O.C. Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who will introduce the voucher pilot program on Tuesday, said there is still an acute need for shelter space during winter months. He said the county reached out to cities, nonprofit groups and religious organizations to partner on hosting an expanded winter shelter, but no one stepped forward.

The voucher program will use $200,000 from the second district’s discretionary funds to operate out of school districts, which will be tasked with identifying families experiencing homelessness. During incremental weather, Families Forward, a local nonprofit, will reach out to those families and place them in rooms close to the schools their children attend. The nonprofit will also provide food.

“It is my hope and goal to ensure that no child or family goes unsheltered during extreme weather and that this pilot serves as a model for other cities in the County to provide for residents in need, during the winter,” Sarmiento said.

Homelessness numbers

Data from the 2024 point in time count in Orange County revealed that nearly 700 children and 347 families were experiencing homelessness. But the number could be significantly more, according to a report by the O.C. Grand Jury in 2023.

The point in time count in 2022 found that 722 children in O.C. were unhoused, but data tallied from the 28 O.C. school districts revealed that more than 23,000 children were unhoused.

School districts tally data based on the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which defines homelessness as a child not having a fixed place to sleep at night.

How we got here

County officials previously told LAist they’re preparing for the cold weather by having outreach teams engage with unhoused people so they are in shelters before there is a need.

The county currently runs two emergency shelters, the Bridges at Kramer Place in Anaheim and the Yale Navigation Center in Santa Ana, which accounts for more than 600 beds. The county also funds shelters via partnerships with cities and nonprofits that total around 1,000 beds.

South O.C. cities have long resisted hosting shelters except for the Friendship Shelter in Laguna Beach, which has operated since 1988.

How to watchdog local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention.

Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

• Read tips on how to get involved.
• The next scheduled board meeting is Tuesday, Jan. 14th. You can check out the O.C. Board of Supervisors full calendar here.
• Learn how to submit a public comment to the O.C. Board of Supervisors.