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It is not that Santa Ana should not have homeless folks. As long as other do, Santa Ana should and we need to have some financial, social, and shelter skin in the game. The problem is the concentration of the homeless population. The concentration is creating problems. Other cities are transporting their homeless to Santa Ana not only to remove them from their own city, but also because that is where the services are available and there may be an available bed. We need to spread the concentration out and each community in Orange County can share in the load. Maybe a story can help understand the concentration issues. There are 2 people each with one gallon of water. One has 18 parts per billion of lead concentrate. If you drink that water, it will be poisonous. The other person's gallon of water is pristine and only has 2 parts per billion of lead in it. You drink that water and you have some of the best water around. If you combine the two, you will have 2 gallons of water each with 10 parts per billion of lead concentrate- below the 15 parts per billion acceptable level. It is only right, humane, and ethical for the person with the clean gallon to dilute their water with the other so that both parties have clean drinking water. if the person who has the clean water refuses to allow for the dilution, leadership has to step In and make it safe for everyone. There are alternatives throughout the county but no one is going to like them. The easy thing to do is to keep this a Santa Ana issue. The right thing to do is for everyone to share the load, Irvine 300-acre Site Community Response As we know, the three sites that were previously identified as shelter areas is now on hold. We are all accutely aware of the show of power that the residents of Irvine expressed. The Irvine folks did e great job of showing that a solid force is one that can yield great results. There main concerns were safety, proximity to schools, location next to a park, and distance to residential as well as no services at the location, inappropriateness of a tent city, and possible contamination of the land as well as others. I Intend to address each of these as I would expect that each of you would do also especially with an eye towards the current situation in Santa Ana as it relates to decisions that have been made with the Couryard and the Plaza of the Flags area. Fortunately, I feel that based on what I have heard from the Irvine group, that given facts and communication that they want to help. However, their help cannot be limited to providing food, clothing, toys and other niceties. They must also shoulder part of the emergency shelter that the homeless so urgently need. By providing the emergency housing, it will allow us to transition them into temporary housing with supportive services which will lead to permanent supportive housing. Safety Issues If housing the homeless population in Irvine, Laguna Niguel or any other city is deemed to be a safety concern, what are we saying about the Courtyard and the Plaza of the Flags area? If the Courtyard and Plaza of the Flags homeless areas are safe for the families of Santa Ana, then housing them in Irvine, Laguna Niguel, or other parts of the county should be similarly safe. If however, we are saying that the homeless population is not safe, we are then indicating that it is acceptable to leadership that we put the people of Santa Ana at a safety risk- one that they are not willing to have in other areas. 3 1 P a g e