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Orange County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to purchase a property in an industrial <br />area of east Santa Ana with the idea that the site would become the county's first year -round <br />homeless shelter. <br />The move drew praise from homeless advocates, but also criticism from residents who live near <br />the proposed site, as well as some supervisors, over what was described as a poor job of outreach <br />by county officials. <br />"It's been a long time coming - there's been a lot of suffering" over last few years, said Tim <br />Houchen, a spokesman for the homeless advocacy group Civic Center Roundtable. "People <br />actually die out here at the Civic Center." <br />Orange County is among the largest metropolitan areas in America without a year -round <br />homeless shelter, and Santa Ana tops the list of potential locations for a shelter largely because <br />its City Council is supportive and its downtown Civic Center already serves as an encampment <br />for hundreds of homeless people. <br />Yet the planning process has left several residents and supervisors feeling left out of the loop. <br />Only one community, forum was held on the proposed shelter site and notice for the July 2 <br />meeting didn't come until two days beforehand, said Santa Ana resident Dora Lopez. <br />"The approach that was taken did not give us an opportunity for input," Lopez said, echoing <br />concerns by several other residents who spoke at the meeting. <br />To her, that was "pretty much telling us it's a done deal." <br />About a half dozen other Santa Ana residents shared similar sentiments. <br />"I'm here representing a lot of my community that are seniors and not English speakers. None of <br />us were informed ... I found out about this yesterday," said Laura Garcia. "If it's going to be in <br />our back yard, we should know," <br />a Civic Center Roundtable representatives complained about a lack of <br />"The Civic Center Roundtable was never consulted" as part of the community engagement <br />y�( process, said Massimo M ' " an_advocate with Civic Center Roundtable. "We really disagree <br />'��� °°" with the fact at yo�h u really didn't inform the community that we " <br />Yet supervisors' Chairman Shawn Nelson said the fact that people showed up to Tuesday's <br />meeting showed that the community was informed. <br />"That's odd you just happen to be in the lobby today," said Nelson. <br />But some of Nelson's colleagues sided with those complaining about the lack of notice. <br />85AA -36 <br />