Orange County supervisors Tuesday rescinded a plan to erect large tents in Irvine, Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel to temporarily house transients recently removed from Santa Ana and the Santa Ana riverbed.
There was no other proposal brought to the table immediately after the decision.
The supervisors, with Chairman Andrew Do absent, also voted unanimously to spend $70.5 million on services for mentally ill transients.
Supervisors on March 19 held a special meeting to approve consideration of "sprung structures," which are large tent hotels often used to handle overflow from ballrooms. The supervisors voted to direct staff to research the logistics and then work with officials in each of the three cities, but the plan never got far as residents and city leaders erupted with outrage and threatened litigation.
Supervisors Tuesday heard a steady stream of criticism from elected leaders from Orange County cities as well as residents who oppose any temporary shelters in their towns.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, encouraged the county to appeal any orders from a federal judge pushing for the relocation of transients from the riverbed and the Plaza of the Flags area next to the Central Justice Center courthouse in Santa Ana.
Rohrabacher even opposed the county spending $70.5 million of its grant money to help provide shelter for mentally ill transients.
"This is exactly the wrong thing to do,'' Rohrabacher said of providing services to the county's transients. "They need to make decisions in their lives, and by feeding them and giving them housing you're taking away the pressure on them to make good decisions in their lives... We should be taking (U.S. District Judge David O. Carter's) orders and appealing it all the way up to the Supreme Court.''
The congressman added, "We have to first take care of those human beings who have made the right decisions.''
Laguna Niguel City Councilman Fred Minager said he was "compassionate to the plight of the homeless,'' but added, "We pay plenty of taxes for the federal, state and county governments to take care of them in a humane fashion.''
Councilwoman Laurie Davies told the supervisors, "Safety is our number one priority,'' and said she opposed putting up a temporary shelter in Laguna Niguel because it is ``steps from a daycare center ... and minutes from an elementary school.''
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Davies accused the county of having "years to address this issue ... and all you need to do is look out the doors of this building and see the county has turned a blind eye to this problem.''
Laguna Niguel Mayor Pro Tem John Mark Jennings criticized the supervisors for making the earlier decision "with no input from our community... This decision was rudderless and without an underlying principle under it, and it was done in haste. Hopefully we've learned a lesson. We're willing to do our part, but we ask to do it with cooperation.''
Santa Ana City Manager Raul Godinez said his city has been shouldering an "inequitable burden'' for many years and that it is "crucial each city help to resolve this issue... For decades, Santa Ana has done more than its fair share... It is our sincere hope other communities will contribute so there's an equal distribution.''
Supervisor Shawn Nelson, who chaired the meeting Tuesday with Chairman Andrew Do absent, drew jeers when he said the county has done far more to address the problem of homelessness than many of its neighbors.
"This is probably managed better than any other county around," Nelson said. "LA County has approximately 60,000 homeless on the streets and they're not even four times our size. We don't have their problems.''
Nelson responded to the boos, saying, "Folks, relax, I know it's hard to hear someone who doesn't believe your narrative.''
Nelson noted that Santa Ana and Fullerton -- with their armories -- provided the only local homeless shelters for years.
"We need emergency shelter beds and some communities have been shouldering that burden for decades,'' Nelson said. "I care about everybody's
kids. I assume you all do as well. But let's be honest here. Our challenge as we get down to the tip of the spear, no one wants to have or host this difficult population. One of the challenges we'll have is who is willing to step up.''
County officials are confident they have enough beds to handle the transients from the riverbed as their county-issued 30-day motel vouchers expire, but to satisfy Carter, who is overseeing litigation against the county regarding the relocation, they pledged to pursue the large tents in the three cities in case they lacked enough beds.
The plan was to put 200 beds in Irvine with 100 each set aside in Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel. If the beds were filled in Irvine then officials would turn to Huntington Beach and then to Laguna Niguel.
But officials in Huntington Beach complained the property in their city is plagued with methane gas issues, and Laguna Niguel officials said the plot of land under consideration in their city is next to the now-shuttered Orange County Superior Courthouse, which has issues with asbestos and mold.
The urgency to find additional beds came from Carter's plan to see a similar relocation of transients from the Plaza of the Flags area next to the Central Justice Center courthouse in Santa Ana. But Carter told supervisors at a court hearing last week he would tap the brakes on that plan to make sure officials have enough beds for the 170 or so transients there.
Nelson has long championed putting up a temporary shelter at the Orange County Great Park because Irvine officials have zoned it for the homeless. The Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel sites are not yet zoned for the homeless.
At the special meeting March 19, the supervisors also voted to spend $70.5 million of money earmarked for the mentally ill to provide beds for the transients through the construction of a new facility or renovation of existing facilities.
