- Title: California rapid shelter model gets people off the streets. Then what?
- Date: 16th March 2022
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHELTER RESIDENT AMON BETTS, 44, SAYING: "You've got to help bring the bricks and build a foundation, and Illumination, if they see you do that, they'll bring more bricks and help you build that foundation stronger. But it's 'if' - IF - Illumination if you do the work also. And so I tell people that and I mean, I know paying mortgages, rent. I had a mortgage for 11 years. I was on my own since I was 17. I never was on the street. I mean, I know what it takes, and it's just once you get down that low, it's sometimes it's like getting to that first step. It seems so far away." BETTS SITTING ON BED WITH RECORDING EQUIPMENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHELTER RESIDENT AMON BETTS, 44, SAYING: "All the people coming in, if they let people walk in and out, it would be a madhouse here, you know? So the shuttle is a designated time, but people need to get used to that if they're going to get an apartment and start getting back into society. That's how things work, you know, and I think responsibility on that end, it starts with simple things like that." VARIOUS OF SHELTER RESIDENT JENNIFER PAEK IN HER ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHELTER RESIDENT JENNIFER PAEK, 57, SAYING: "For myself, I don't know about what anybody's saying, but for myself, I love this place 'cause I actually met some people, my friends-to-be. Very good people. Everybody here, to me, they're very nice. Everybody. So I just love the people here. I don't mind staying, whatever. But I do need to get some privacy, so I really do need to move to a private room." VARIOUS OF PAEK SITTING OUTSIDE
- Embargoed: 30th March 2022 10:53
- Keywords: Orange County homeless shelters temporary
- Location: SANTA ANA, FULLERTON AND LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- City: SANTA ANA, FULLERTON AND LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Society/Social Issues,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA003461514032022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Property developers Ryan and Jeremy Ogulnick converted an industrial space into their first homeless shelter in 28 days, helping the city of Santa Ana address a crisis while making a profit.
The brothers repeated the model in the neighboring Orange County cities of Anaheim and Fullerton, converting properties in a matter of months. They are due to open yet another remodeled Santa Ana site, a former cannabis processing plant, next week.
"The model is fairly simple. We take vacant warehouses, vacant office buildings, no different than building out tenant improvements for an insurance company or a tech company, and within 30 to, it depends on the magnitude of the, of the buildout, between 30 days and nine months, we can build out a fully operating shelter," said Ryan Ogulnick, CEO of Vineyards Development, which invested $9.2 million in rebuilding the new Santa Ana Carnegie Shelter and will rent it to the site manager, the non-profit Illumination Foundation, for the market
rate of $44,000 per month.
The new site, built-in nine months, will replace the one that went up in 28 days, which was only meant to be temporary and closed a year ago.
The existing Fullerton Navigation Center converted for $5.5 million over eight months, is being rented at $22,000 per month.
The city of Anaheim acquired La Mesa Emergency Shelter for $2.2 million-plus $1.6 million for a buildout that took 90 days.
Quick and efficient as they may be, the shelters are only a short-term fix. With affordable housing scarce and real estate continuing to rise in one of California's priciest markets, some critics are concerned Orange County is content to shunt the unhoused out of view without promoting permanent housing.
"The focus really has been, of many of the cities in Orange County, on recognizing that there's a problem, talking through solutions to the problem and then going for the quick fix to the visibility and not the permanent solution to the problem," said attorney Brooke Weitzman, co-founder of ELDR Center, a law office representing people who are homeless, seniors and have disabilities.
Katrina Foley, one of five members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, said that Orange County was lagging in creating permanent housing solutions, as are jurisdictions across the country.
The United States was about 7 million units short of sufficient affordable housing, according to a 2021 study by
National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC).
In nearby Los Angeles, where the city's mayoral race is being dominated by the issue, the county's homeless population is estimated at 66,000, with expanding tent cities on the sidewalks of Downtown L.A., Hollywood, and Venice Beach.
Orange County, a generally more affluent and politically conservative area just to the south, has a significant homeless population of some 7,000 people, nearly 60% of them unsheltered, according to the latest completed count in 2019.
Paul Leon, president, and CEO of the Illumination Foundation say more housing is needed but says many people are unprepared to go immediately from the street to maintain a household.
He runs the 150-bed Fullerton Navigation Center, which the Olgunicks converted from a former engineering company in a light industrial zone. In an attempt to reduce complaints from neighbors, the shelter bans residents from walking in and out, which keeps them out of public view. Residents are driven in and out through a side gate deep within a parking lot.
They can stay 24 hours a day for months at a time, as opposed to other shelters that kick people out during the day.
Three residents interviewed by Reuters found the shelter friendlier and cozier than others where they have stayed, praising the on-site services.
"They're giving me the tools that I need. And the right mindset that I'm going to need to be able to succeed on my own and to do everything for myself," said Roland Flores, 48, who is seeing the on-site dentist and has been able to acquire his birth certificate, Social Security card, and state identification card during his nine-month stay.
Jennifer Paek, 57, who became homeless after her husband died, spent two nights sleeping outside a McDonald's before she found her way to the Fullerton Navigation Center.
"I just love the people here. I actually met some people, my friends. I don't mind staying, whatever. But I do need to get some privacy," said Paek, who is searching for an apartment with housing vouchers.
"You've got to help bring the bricks and build a foundation, and Illumination, if they see you do that, they'll bring more bricks," said Amon Betts, 44.
Leon says most people with support move from the streets to homes. Some of those who do not may die, go to jail or end up back on the street.
(Production: Sandra Stojanovic, David Swanson, Jane Ross) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None