2019-035 - Orange County Housing Finance Trust

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RESOLUTION NO. 2019-035 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA RELATING TO THE JOINT EXERCISE OF POWERS FOR AND MEMBERSHIP IN THE ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING FINANCE TRUST Whereas, homelessness in the Orange County region has increased over time to at least 4,500 people as of the 2017 Point in Time Count; and Whereas, homelessness locally is a result of various causes that can include a lack of affordable and supportive housing units, the high cost of workforce housing, a shortage of jobs that result in wages that pay for local rents, mental illness and substance use, the high cost of land and housing development, and more; and Whereas, as homelessness increases, it causes crises that can be humanitarian, financial and from a community safety perspective, as Orange County residents and others without adequate shelter reside in and on communities' public facilities, including streets, parks, sidewalks, transit centers, riverbeds and storm channels, restrooms, libraries, and more; and Whereas, the costs of homelessness on our community resources and facilities are estimated in a 2017 study (based on 2014-15 dollars) done by United Way of Orange County and the University of California, Irvine, to be in the range of $300 million per year, and likely growing; and Whereas, families, children, the aged, our veterans, and persons with mental illness and other disabilities are all subject to homelessness depending on their individual circumstances, and all are worthy of our community's respect and care; and Whereas, the provision of adequate housing for persons formerly homeless can include a range of housing types, from emergency and bridge shelters to transitional housing to rapid rehousing to supportive housing to affordable housing; and Whereas, in Orange County, there appears to be a shortfall of beds and units in each housing category, making the goal of ending homelessness in our region extremely difficult to attain without adding more housing units; and Whereas, the concept of adding to the supply of supportive housing — supportive housing meaning where a person who may have formerly been homeless is able to secure and maintain his or her housing provided that services are provided to the individual to help them stay successfully in housing — is deemed to be beneficial to solving especially the needs of the chronically homeless; and Whereas, in 2018, Orange County leaders worked to develop and secure legislation that created a joint powers mechanism that would share the power of Resolution No. 2019-035 Page 1 of 16