Item 13 - OC Grand Jury's Investigative Report, Findings, and Recommendations Regarding Group Homes and the Orange County Animal Care Shelter

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WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD the people in neighborhoods which have been impacted by the over -concentration of group homes, and/or the level of nuisances generated by the group homes. f discipline, e to the public A lack of understanding of the challenges faced by cities leads to the perception that they are unwilling to step up and regulate the various group home types that are springing up in neighborhoods. Public education will reveal that there is not an unwillingness of cities, or the public, to find resolutions, but rather there are many hurdles promulgated by State and federal agencies that often prevent opportunities for reaching a solution. Cities should work together, and with State legislators and other stakeholders, to look for ways to affect change at the State level as well as provide more focused public education that addresses these issues. In an effort to inform their citizens, some cities have used the multi -discipline, educational, townhall type response to the public outcry while others have not. The outcome can be quite different. To illustrate, we heed look no further than a tale of three cities: Anaheim, Newport Beach, and Laguna Hills. Anaheim's group home issue heated up in October 2021 when Grandma's House of Hope requested a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to use a large house as a transitional living home for 19 intractably mentally ill women.26 -_-- It was not Grandma's House -of Hope's first group home in Anaheim; it was the latest in many previously successful CUP requests. Local residents coalesced against this CUP request in a vocal and organized manner. Whether it was the number of residents impacted, the descriptor of the group home residents as intractably mentally ill, or just one group home too many in this neighborhood, this organized effort to prevent the - approval of the large group home attracted hundreds of local citizens and activists from both sides of the issue. It seemed that the majority of these people attended the planning commission meeting to voice their opinions during the public comment portion _- of the.agenda and to let the City's Planning Commission see the strength of their numbers. ORANGE COUNTY GRAND JURY 2022 12023 Page 20 of 42