Orange County will not offer centralized cold weather shelters for the unhoused during the winter season this year.
This marks the second year in a row the county hasn’t provided inclement weather emergency shelters, breaking a frequent tradition held since 2007.
Shelters are normally held at the National Guard armories in Santa Ana and Fullerton, each having a capacity of 200 people. The armories typically opened to people as a shelter facility from October until April, though that number lowered after the pandemic until the shelter service stopped two years ago.
Doug Becht, director of Orange County’s Office of Care Coordination, told the OC Register that the lack of emergency weather shelters this year is due to “the county’s breadth of homeless programs and services” being different than they once were.
“[It reduces] the need for inclement weather shelter beds,” Becht said.
A 2024 county report showed there were 7,322 homeless people in Orange County, with 4,173 of them being unsheltered. The numbers rose from the 2022 report where 3,057 out of 5,718 homeless people were unsheltered, a 36.52% increase in the number of unsheltered homeless individuals over two years.
The county has provided more shelters and resources for homeless people since 2007. The county’s first emergency shelter, Bridges at Kraemer Place, opened in 2017 in Anaheim. It “provides shelter and supportive services for up to 200 adult individuals,” according to the Orange County CEO’s office.
The most recent county shelter program opened in January 2021 in Santa Ana. The Yale Navigation Center is operated by People Assisting the Homeless, an organization that provides, “trauma informed services with an emphasis on stabilization, permanent housing placements and re-integration of participants back into the community.”
To increase the number of homelessness resources, the county commissioned the Cold Weather Emergency Shelter Ad Hoc — whose purpose is to assess design and operation models to bring recommendations back to the Office of Care Coordination. It partners with community organizations and faith-based groups to address homelessness, both in response and prevention.
“We understand communities have different needs, they have different resources and are able to approach this in different ways,” Becht told the OC Register regarding the committee.
As a result, Orange County partnered with the city of Orange “to provide up to 50 emergency shelter beds during cold and inclement weather for individuals experiencing homelessness from February 1, 2024, through April 15, 2024.”
Still, county officials are looking for stronger ways to be prepared to shelter homeless people during winter months. Last year, the county’s Commission to End Homelessness called on all 34 cities to provide their own shelters, working alongside organizations and public safety. This is a switch from past centralized shelters, of which there were one or two locations in the county.
Noosha Taghdiri is a News Intern for the fall 2024 quarter. She can be reached at taghdirn@uci.edu.