{"id":7703,"date":"2026-05-19T04:03:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T04:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7703"},"modified":"2026-05-19T04:03:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T04:03:41","slug":"more-than-a-half-billion-dollars-later-just-a-dent-in-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7703","title":{"rendered":"More than a half-billion dollars later, just a dent in homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

We don\u2019t mean to be Debbie Downer. And we\u2019re as pleased as punch (and as pleased as local officialdom, apparently) that the total number of homeless folks in Orange County declined between 2024 and 2026.<\/p>

Read more At Cal State LA\u2019s Graduation 2026, tennis legend Billie Jean King just got her degree, and served up a message for life<\/a><\/p>\n

But \u2026 reality check. There were still more unhoused people here in January than there were in 2022.<\/p>\n

This could well be the work of pandemic-era eviction bans that were in place in 2022 and gone in 2024, when homelessness in O.C. jumped to new heights.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s truly swell that the number of unhoused folks (that volunteers could find to count) is down since 2024, it\u2019s bracing that there were still 6,321 people in shelters and on the streets here in January when hundreds of volunteers fanned out with clipboards and questions.<\/p>\n

This is even as Orange County spent more than a half-billion dollars on homelessness over the past three years alone.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Orange County spent $112.3 million on housing, health care, assistance, shelters and outreach for homeless folks. That more than doubled, to $236.8 million, in 2024. Then it dove to $169.8 in 2025 (as state and federal funding dwindled). It\u2019s expected to total about $190 million in 2026.<\/p>\n

That $190 million \u2014 and we apologize here for the admittedly obnoxious math \u2014 averages out to about $30,000 per homeless person. We could rent apartments for each and every one for that much money.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/figure>\nOkay, we understand that very many of these folks need much more than just a roof over their heads. About 78% of the \u201cunsheltered homeless\u201d \u2014 the people you see in tent camps, parks and doorways \u2014 reported substance use and serious mental illness, according to the new Point In Time Count data.<\/p>
\n<\/div>\n

These folks need much more intensive care, the kind you get with \u201csupportive housing\u201d overseen by professionals, but there\u2019s clearly not enough of that.<\/p>\n

Back in 2018, Some 900 units have been brought online as of late \u2014 we\u2019re awaiting a grand total \u2014 but the cost has exceeded a half-million dollars per unit.<\/p>

Read more 2026 Point In Time Count: Orange County\u2019s homeless population down 14% in two years<\/a><\/p>\n

There must be a thriftier way to do this (see, perhaps, San Jose\u2019s \u201ctiny home\u201d initiative?), but building and staffing these facilities should be first on everyone\u2019s to-do list.<\/p>\n

We must acknowledge an uncomfortable truth here: Some unhoused folks who use drugs aren\u2019t stopping, and won\u2019t accept shelter if sobriety is required and\/or drug use is verboten.<\/p>

\n<\/div>\n

That\u2019s where \u201charm reduction\u201d comes in \u2014 providing users a safe place to do what they think they need to do, hopefully under the watchful eye of professionals who can steer them toward help if and when they\u2019re ready, and keep them alive until that day comes. \u201cMeet them where they are, work like hell to get them somewhere better,\u201d is how one doctor put it.<\/p>\n

Yes, California does stress housing first, and the governor has rejected attempts to dedicate some homeless funding to sober-only housing. But he also vetoed a pilot program that would have allowed \u201csafe consumption\u201d sites in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland \u2014 an approach that research has found provides a bridge to housing, services and addiction treatment. That sort of harm reduction should be high on our to-do list as well (even if it might play poorly to a national audience weighing presidential hopefuls).<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/figure>\nAn extremely interesting data point \u2014 one that\u2019s not part of the report \u2014 is the tremendous recent drop in homeless deaths here in O.C. Homelessness has decreased nearly 14% in Orange County, but data from the coroner\u2019s office show that deaths plunged 40% among people with no permanent address in 2025, from their high a few years earlier. That mirrors almost perfectly what has happened nationwide, where overdose deaths plunged 38%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.<\/p>\n

Some experts credit easier-to-access Narcan (which can reverse opioid overdoses), but a paper published in January in the journal Science suggests that the answer is China. Crackdowns on the chemicals used to manufacture street fentanyl closed hundreds of suppliers in 2023 and Chinese authorities arrested hundreds of people. That may have resulted in the substitution of less-lethal drugs, like xylazine, to the drug mix, researchers said.<\/p>\n

Officials are happy that, for the first time, more of Orange County\u2019s unhoused folks were living in shelters (3,256) rather than living on the streets \u201cor places not meant for human habitation\u201d (3,065). That is good news.<\/p>\n

But, for all this effort and expense, we still have 6,321 people without homes.<\/p>\n

We must do better. We must do something different. Civilized societies do not allow people to live and die on the streets.<\/p>

Read more 2026 Board of Equalization District 4 candidates discuss California\u2019s property taxes and how to best use those funds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columnist Teri Sforza writes: … It’s bracing that there were still 6,321 people in shelters and on the streets in Orange County. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion-columnist","category-represents-the-opinion-of-the-author-who-is-either-a-paid-columnist-or-an-unpaid-guest-columnist"],"yoast_head":"\nMore than a half-billion dollars later, just a dent in homelessness - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7703\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More than a half-billion dollars later, just a dent in homelessness - Silicon Valley Moving Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Columnist Teri Sforza writes: ... 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