Orange County officials Tuesday will begin moving transients out of the Santa Ana riverbed to shelters or motels as part of a settlement worked out by the county and homeless advocates under the supervision of a federal court judge.
Officials estimate there are about 400 transients still left on the riverbed from a population that swelled to more than 1,000 at one point.
Social workers have managed to get many to alternative housing, but a group remained, forcing a showdown in federal court last week between the county, which wanted to open up the biking and hiking trails to the public again, and homeless advocates who wanted to make sure the transients didn't end up on a criminal merry-go-round as they bounced from city to city running afoul of anti-camping ordinances.
The work will begin at 9 a.m. on the north end at Taft Avenue and Ball Road, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Carrie Braun.
Social workers from the county's healthcare agency will begin by doing intake surveys of the transients and advising them of their options. And Public Works officials will be on hand to help with trash disposal or carrying belongings to a storage area, Braun said.
Social workers will see how many of the transients will go to area shelters, where such services as health care are available, Braun said. When the available beds fill up, then motel vouchers will be handed out along with food vouchers, she said.
The transients also will be offered transportation to a motel, she said, while those who refuse to leave risk citations or arrest.
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"I think progress will be slow and methodical," Braun said.
It's not clear how long the work will take.
At a special meeting Thursday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved spending for 400 motel vouchers and food and plans to expand temporary housing elsewhere to handle the influx of transients. The supervisors unanimously approved the plan, much of which was worked out in a federal courtroom under the threat of a preliminary injunction that would have dictated how they handled transients moved out of the riverbed.
The supervisors budgeted $180,000 for the food vouchers for the estimated 400 homeless people living in the riverbed encampments between Taft Avenue, Ball Road and Memory Lane.
The county also will add 92 beds at the Bridges at Kraemer Place in Anaheim, which has been opened in stages and is still being completed.
Officials say tents may be erected in the shelter's parking lot if necessary.
If there aren't enough motel rooms, officials are also poised to put up tented shelters at other county locations, including near the Orange County Registrar of Voters in Santa Ana.
The WISEPlace shelter for women in Santa Ana will get 100 more beds to handle victims fleeing domestic abuse.
County social workers will also work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other area agencies to bring services to veterans on the riverbed.
The transients on the riverbed today will be offered motel vouchers for 30 days and other services. Anyone refusing to go faces the threat of a trespassing citation.
While the homeless are in the motels, officials will work to find them more permanent housing and shelter.
The average rate of the motel rooms is $75 to $125 nightly, according to Orange County Chief Executive Officer Frank Kim.
Santa Ana Councilman Jose Solorio asked the county to not put all or most of the transients in Santa Ana motel rooms. He also sounded concerns about setting up temporary shelter near the Orange County Registrar of Voters offices.
"We'd like to see the county work with as many cities as possible so the vouchers are used countywide," Solorio said.
Solorio praised the county's new shelter in Anaheim, saying it has likely made the area "cleaner and safer than it was before."
The county could add 32 beds to the shelter in Anaheim and provide an additional 60 with tents in the parking lot.
A fleet yard in Orange can also be used to erect a tent to set up 100 beds.
In all, the county believes it can provide 700 to 800 more beds, said Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Andrew Do.
The temporary housing is being offered as part of an agreement brokered in part by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter to resolve litigation over county and municipal efforts to clear the Santa Ana riverbed encampment.
Under an agreement with homeless advocates, the county will provide temporary housing and work to find permanent solutions for the homeless, who will have to move out of the encampment by today.
Homeless advocates had sued over plans to clear the camp, arguing there was nowhere for the transients to go.
Carter toured the encampment early Wednesday morning with county and other officials, who began notifying people living there that they will have to vacate the area.
Carter said in court that he wanted to avoid an endless cycle of citing homeless people for trespassing, which leads to them serving jail time since they can't pay the fine, and ending with them returning to the riverbed.
Worse, he said, was the possibility that the hundreds along the riverbed would flee to surrounding cities, where they would be cited and arrested, and again find themselves in the "revolving door of citations."
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including several homeless people who live on the riverbed, wanted Carter to block the county and the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Orange from enforcing anti-camping laws along the riverbed and the surrounding cities until alternative housing was found.
Last week, Carter granted a temporary restraining order when county officials made it clear to the plaintiffs that they intended to begin enforcing anti-camping and trespass laws along the riverbed.
Orange County Catholic Worker, the main plaintiff in the lawsuit, argued that county officials have failed for years to provide affordable housing for the area's needy and that its homeless shelters are overcrowded.
