17 replies »

1. Thank you, Leigh. You are absolutely correct: It’s cold in the day time; it gets COOOLD at night. That bone-aching cold stays with you.

   Also, thank you for maintaining their humanity and dignity; and recognizing the unsheltered neighbors we lost by name. DVena used to recognize our lost neighbors every month; I miss that.

   …and that list is unacceptably and heartbreakingly long.

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2. and let us not forget Kelly Thomas who died by “altercation”, hypocritical for publishing this open letter

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   • The Fullerton left has a long history of equating the murder of Kelly Thomas with homeless issues as a not-so subtle diversion. Thomas died because 6 Fullerton police beat him to death.

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3. You make a good point – almost. The fixation on big, expensive, rulesy shelters with bronze plaques on them to commemorate political and bureaucratic patrons should be reconsidered, pronto. The Homeless Industrial Complex fails to accept nimble, flexible, much more inexpensive modalities.

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   • Well currently, the County seems to prefer to spend its money on its prisons … and 70% of North Orange County’s homeless population is _programmed_ to be kept on the streets because all that North Orange County was required to do in its settlement regarding homelessness was to build two shelters — one in Buena Park and the other in Placentia, which even at that time could only shelter 30% of the region’s homeless population AND are have now been FULL for the better part of 2-3 years.

     So 70% of the area’s homeless population is on our streets thanks to insistence to on trying to defy simple math. 30% doesn’t even come close to 100% (in fact it is closer to 0%).

     There’s the problem.

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     • “Well currently, the County seems to prefer to spend its money on its prisons”

       Are you talking about the County jails?

       For the huge amount of money spent on the “Placenta” facility (I think you mean the one in Anaheim) all sorts of other useful things to put immediate roofs over heads could have been done.

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       • Anaheim made a separate deal with Judge Carter and to this day it is quite hard to get people “with links to Fullerton” into shelters in Anaheim.

         Fullerton was part of the agreement that built the navigation centers in Buena Park and Placentia and so when one calls the Hope Center with someone who’d like to get into a shelter the only places that it tries to get them into are those two centers (in BP and Placentia).

         What of the Fullerton Nav Center? Well because it was built “outside” the agreement that created the BP and Placentia Nav Centers, the City of Fullerton has fought tooth and nail to not have to fund it. In the end, it pays for 20 beds there (out of 150).

         So the BP / Placentia Nav Centers (which it shares with the North SPA) and the 20 beds at the Fullerton Nav Center are always full, especially apparently when it comes to women.

         And so we have what we have in our fair city — people who have been programmed to live on our streets indefinitely, that is, essentially until they die.

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         • You didn’t respond to my assertion. And you don’t have to. The “system” has wasted tens of millions on permanent shelters to look good and to award big contracts to operators who have no controls and almost no accountability. Maybe you think we need more of that. I don’t.

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4. Horrible situation for these unhoused people, no doubt. 100% agree that these people need a place to shelter indoors, but, please do your due diligence. Where did you get these names? Couldn’t you provide a link to this information? How many of these unfortunate people lost their lives to weather? Why don’t you include that information as well?

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   • And the list seems to have been truncated in some way. According to the OC Coroner’s office, as of now, 499 people died “without fixed abode” in OC between Jan 1 and Dec 31, 2023. Almost certainly 1-2 others, who died in 2023 but whose records are published only in January or February 2024, will have died as well. So the number almost certainly broke 500 last year.

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5. Life is full of misery for many unfortunates. Kelly Thomas was beaten to death by effeminate officers lacking self-confidence. People have always died from exposure, especially so when they are addicted or mentally ill, lack regular sound sleep, proper nutrition, bathing facilities, clean clothing and helpful guidance.

   Families struggle to survive and often lack the energy or desire to help others in need. Those who need no help often care about only themselves. Leigh, housing is not a human right. Struggling to survive is a human right. Open letters don’t do much. Go find someone who is struggling and work to solve their dilemma. Then repeat that. The City can’t run itself much less 500 needy individuals.

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   • “The City can’t run itself much less 500 needy individuals.”

     Nonsense. Of course we can do that. It’s simply a choice. If we won’t then we shouldn’t be a city.

     “Struggling to survive is a human right.”

     Where did you get that garbage?

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     • John- America has passed the point where a few needy people can be helped efficiently by the masses. The numbers now are simply overwhelming. We have dropped the ball. Do I state this with glee? No, I state it with sadness. I am proud to be an American. I am not proud of the chaos we currently have.

       ‘Struggling to survive is a human right,’ garbage? Each of us are born and take what we get. The lottery of life is entirely unfair. Life does not care. The struggle we each face in that fight is the only human right we have. That is reality. That is my point. You don’t care about my struggle. I can’t be concerned for yours. Evidently you and I care about the plight of unfortunate others but the problem is beyond the capability of an insignificant city run by political wrestling matches.

       Reality is painful. Unfairness is not a concept in the real world despite our wishing that it was.

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       • American has not passed the point where the neediest people can be helped by the masses. Efficiently? Optimality is relative. Expensive? Sure. But compared to what? It’s a mistake to think there is no cost to leaving people on the street. There is a cost to our social services, to everyone’s quality of life, to health care, to prisons, etc.

         Do we need to do a break even analysis?

         I don’t think so. We need to decide who we are and who we want to be and close the gap.

         We need not put everything down to this philosophy of every man being an island, fending for himself. We’re a society.

         As to how many people Fullerton should be able to shelter… as many people as there are on the street any given night.

         That said, enough shelter beds is the “necessary but not sufficient” part. Shelters are shelters to queue up for triage into other services.To resolve street homelessness you have to have appropriate shelters for everyone on the street and then enforce that people stop camping.

         The rest of the equation, the far harder and more expensive part: is getting them stabilized connectivity, vital records, care, counseling, training, stable housing, etc.

         But it we decide we don’t care enough to fix it, nothing will work.

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         • John- Valid points. You bring some needed wisdom to the table. Ain’t the internet great?

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6. I was just now talking with my friend becuz my son who is homeless went to Fullerton looking to stay in the winter shelter. He just borrowed someone’s phone to call me not 1 hr. ago to say it doesn’t exist anymore. What am I supposed to tell to him
   ? I can’t put him up in a motel with no ID, he cant come to my home becuz of court order. So he is stuck on street. This is ridiculous, horrible, dangerous, abusive .. the list just goes on and on. About time the City stepped up!!

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   • Only Anaheim has a cold weather shelter. Fullerton homeless must call the police and ask for a homeless liaison. The homeless liaison will meet them where they are and take them to a shelter.

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