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Salas, Diana From: Tim Johnson <tjohnson@jlkrllp.com> Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 12:59 PM To: eComment Cc: Solorio, Jose; Iglesias, Cecilia; Villegas, Juan; Sarmiento, Vicente; Bacerra, Phil; Pulido, Miguel; Penaloza, David; Ridge, Kristine; Flores, Rosa Subject: Agenda Item 1 (Closed Session)- Homeless litigation Mayor, Council, and City Manager ... On tonight's closed session agenda item 1, you will be considering existing litigation regarding homeless items before the city. I urge you to thoughtfully and compassionately explore this item to its fullest. As you know, issues surrounding homelessness are likely one of the most important issues for a lot of Santa Ana residents and business owners. At the last council meeting in December, you voted to initiate various litigation. Thank you. I would ask that you follow through and pursue litigation against all cities in the county that are not providing shelter for their population with a special focus on South County Cities. Currently, you have initiated litigation against only San Clemente, Dana Point, and San Juan Capistrano at the city level (district court case SA CV 20-0069-DOC). However, there are currently other cities who similarly are impacting Santa Ana. Those in South County are refusing to provide shelter and as such those in need of shelter are migrating to Santa Ana. Additionally, even our own Central SPA cities are not stepping forward... cities like Westminster, Garden Grove, Seal Beach, Fountain Valley, Newport Beach. They all are having an impact on our city. After reading the various complaints in federal and superior court, I believe that you are also missing a huge component. The county's own actions are impacting Santa Ana and the result of some of these actions are that the county is responsible for transporting individuals from other parts of the county to Santa Ana. For example, if someone from the Central SPA accepts a shelter bed at the Santa Ana Armory, they only have two choices on where to be transported during the day- both are in Santa Ana. So, if someone from Seal Beach accepts shelter at the Armory, they will be put on a shelter bus and end up in Santa Ana during the day even though they are from Seal Beach where they likely have more social ties, prospects for work, and known services. The same is true in the evening... clients of the Armory are only able to pick up a shuttle bus in Santa Ana to be transported back for the evening. By only allowing transportation to two locations in Santa Ana, the county is ensuring that folks will spend the day in Santa Ana even though they are from another city. The same is true of The Courtyard to a larger extent ... once the county places someone at The Courtyard, they will remain in Santa Ana during the day and evening. The county's own policies are relocating people from other parts of the county to Santa Ana. When other cities are not stepping up with offers of shelter, folks that are willing to accept help have no choice but to relocate to Santa Ana or other cities that may have a shelter. In contrast, the Armory in Fullerton offers shuttle buses to 4 different cities in the Northern SPA. Why would Santa Ana be any different? The county needs to change this policy asap. I would encourage you to ask the county and its providers for intake records to determine how rampant this relocation process is at both The Courtyard and the Santa Ana Armory. The service providers records should indicate how they arrived at the Armory/Courtyard and who the referring agency was which will help you determine if they were relocated from another part of the city. By the way, just because someone comes from the Central SPA should not deter you from thinking that this also impacts Santa Ana- other central cities are similarly not stepping up. At a minimum, our neighbors here in the Central part of the county need to be providing financial resources if they are not going to have a shelter in their city either by their own choice or the county's.