Throughout Orange County and the State, local governments are struggling with how to best address rising homelessness. According to the 2019 Point in Time Count, the City of Fullerton has an estimated 473 homeless residents with 308 unsheltered on a given night. On July 2, 2019, the City Council declared a “shelter crisis” due to the lack of emergency shelters and has embarked upon a series of efforts to best address the issue.
Last July, the City established a Fullerton Homeless Plan Committee (FHPC) in order to develop a coordinated and collaborative response to homelessness in Fullerton.
Members of the Fullerton Homeless Plan Committee.
The committee was comprised of residents, service providers, faith leaders, the business community, hospitals and colleges. The committee met every other week between August and November, 2019.
The culmination of the FHPC’s work was the development of a Strategic Plan for Addressing Homelessness in Fullerton.
This document was presented for City Council review in conjunction with consideration of specific measures identified in the report for immediate action.
Fullerton Homeless Plan Committee chair Rusty Kennedy presents recommendations to city council.
Here are the key recommendations the committee prioritized for immediate action:
-Change the city code to allow properties containing religious institutions to develop permanent supportive housing and/or affordable housing on those properties “by right”.
-Approve use of available City-owned land for the development of Permanent Supportive Housing and/or Affordable Housing and fast track the planning and approval process.
-Develop an affordable housing overlay zone by June 2020 to facilitate “by-right” development of Permanent Supporting Housing and/or Affordable Housing to meet the City’s Regional Housing Need Assessment (RHNA) goals.
-Support emergency shelter / navigation beds for Fullerton homeless individuals at proposed recuperative care/navigation center at 3535 West Commonwealth.
Key Findings of the Committee
Causes of Homelessness in Fullerton include:
1. Lack of housing affordable to very low-income residents.
2. Lack of Permanent Supportive Housing for individuals living with mental illness.
3. Growing numbers of opioid addicted individuals reduced to living on the streets.
4. Lack of jobs with sufficient pay to afford food and shelter in our community.
Housing a homeless individual is less expensive than leaving them on the street. (Source: United Way of OC – Homelessness in Orange County: The Cost to Our Community 2017).
The Anti-Camping Ordinance cannot be enforced until Fullerton can provide year-round shelter for 60% of the unsheltered homeless population. After the proposed Buena Park, Placentia, and Fullerton Navigation Center shelter beds are all available, the City of Fullerton should be able to enforce the Anti- Camping Ordinance.
Homelessness cannot be solved through arrests and requires a system of care, according to Robert Dunn, City of Fullerton Police Chief
Bridges at Kraemer Place, the only available year-round shelter accessible to Fullerton, is close to or at capacity the majority of the year.
Shelters are important, but affordable housing is critical to solving homelessness, according to Cesar Covarrubias of The Kennedy Commission.
Fullerton is falling behind in the Low and Very Low Regional Housing Needs Assessment goal for 2021.
For more information visit www.cityoffullerton.com.
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Categories: Local News
Lice exploding from my hair, food stamps dangling from my fingers
I slump against my rusting residence with the four rubber wheels
The smell of unwashed clothes on my kids lingers
I fantasize I am an artist while I cadge my meals
What am I ?
I am an optimist
Sharon Kennedy, you defend your brother.
It is back. Rusty Kennedy chairing Fullerton’s homeless committee after getting the boot from his CEO position at Orange County Human Relations Commission is a disturbing fact. Doesn’t Fullerton remember Rusty awarding Fullerton Police Chief McKinley OC Human Relations exemplary community-police relations the same year Fullerton Police Officer Rincon caught molesting female detainees in his squad car or when he told the media , without a shred of evidence,in 2011, that roving bands of white supremacists were instilling fear in minorities by spray painting racial epithets on public places when in fact it was a lone, fifty plus woman with a history of schizophrenia or when Kelly Thomas was beaten to death by Fullerton Police Officers, Rusty was asked by retired Fullerton Police Chief and then Fullerton City Council Member McKinley to help calm the moral outrage of Fullerton’s community over Kelly’s murder by FPD, and his response was to tell the public it was the community’s indifference to Kelly’s homeless status that caused his death when cctv and the public witnessed FPD beating him to death. Why has the city of Fullerton allowed this person an influential role in solving the “homeless”problem?
You are very uninformed. Rusty Kennedy retired from his long career at OC Human Relations and is the perfect person to head a study to find solutions to the issues of homelessness. He is a highly respected community member and well-known and respected throughout the county for the work he did and the non-profit he started to help fund the work of the OC Human Relations Commission. He is not responsible for, nor would he condone, any wrong doings by any police department.
🤔 As much as these individuals would like to help, they probably won’t get much done. As a former homeless individual myself I could tell you that most of us are not given the opportunity to succeed, so we turn to what we know best, survival… If you really want to help, the homeless, give them a job. With or without something one out record. ‘Cause most of us just want a reason to get up in the morning. Unfortunately, most are not given a chance. Just my thoughts on the issue. I don’t intend to offend anybody. God bless you all!