A federal judge has told city leaders in Orange County to begin looking for smaller shelters to house the homeless after they cleared a camp out of the Santa Ana Riverbed in February.
Judge David Carter told South O.C. city leaders that shelter space has to be proportional in cities around the county. Last week, the O.C. Board of Supervisors scrapped a plan that would have placed hundreds of relocated homeless to a site in Irvine.
O.C. Supervisor Todd Spitzer says the new demand would ask for much smaller shelters.
"But there's a big difference in the conversation. And that is, now the local elected officials are being stewards of that conversation," Spitzer told KFI's Andrew Mollenbeck.
The judge has accused South O.C. leaders of passing off their homeless to Santa Ana.
"Today the conversation was about a proportional distribution of the homeless issue, with everybody having to take responsibility," Spitzer said.
South County City leaders are set to meet on April 19th to discuss possible sites for a homeless shelter that complies with the judge's order.