SANTA ANA (CNS) - Orange County supervisors approved a contract today with an Irvine-based nonprofit to continue the process of placing transients in local motels so they can be transitioned to more stable, longer-term housing.
Under the $1.6 million, six-month contract, the Illumination Foundation will offer services to at least 60 transients at a time referred to the company by county social workers. Transients accepted into the program will be put up in a motel while they are being evaluated for appropriate shelters. The transients must accept rules that include ``behavioral expectations for the housing opportunity,'' according to a county staff report.
The transients will receive daily meals as part of the program. The ``goal of the (foundation's) program is to support the participant in navigating available housing in the community and successfully obtain long-term housing at any point during their six-month stay,'' according to the staff report.
The foundation's staff includes ``nurses, clinicians, substance abuse counselors, peers, site aides, case managers, housing navigators and drivers,'' according to the staff report. An accounting of the county's homeless performed last year determined there were 4,792 transients in the county. Of those, 2,208 were sheltered and 2,584 lacked shelter.
The county recently cleared out homeless encampments on the Santa Ana riverbed in the Anaheim area and the civic center area in Santa Ana next to the Orange County Superior Courthouse. The county collected 13,950 needles, 400 tons of debris and 5,279 pounds of hazardous waste from the riverbed camp, according to the county. About 230 transients were in the Plaza of the Flags area next to the courthouse and more than 700 were in the riverbed encampment.