Conservative Residents in Coastal SoCal County Furious After Officials Vote to Spend $70 Million on Homeless and Create Homeless ‘Tent Cities’

Conservative residents in Orange County, a wealthy enclave in Southern California just south of Los Angeles, are furious after supervisors voted to spend over $70 million on permanent housing for the homeless.

Even worse, homeless people may be temporarily housed in tents inside three conservative Orange County cities including Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach and Irvine.

The Orange County Register reports:

Supervisors voted Monday for Orange County to spend $70.5 million on permanent housing for the homeless, and to create temporary homeless camps in Irvine, and possibly in Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel.

The vote comes a week after supervisors committed $20 million toward permanent housing for the homeless. The combined $90 million is likely the single largest appropriation ever committed by the county to fight homelessness, and signals a shift in the county’s strategy to solve the growing issue.

The decision came as supervisors admitted that they’ve failed to spend money that’s been available for homeless housing – tens of millions of dollars technically earmarked for mental health funding. Supervisors said they’d been misled by county staff as to what resources were available, though news reports for at least two years have pointed to the availability of up to $186 million.

Staff will advise supervisors in the coming weeks about how the county can acquire land or renovate buildings. It’s unclear when actual construction, or acquisition of housing, might begin.

For homeless advocates, the vote was a welcome surprise.

“It’s really great to see the county finally… take steps to ending the housing crisis in Orange County,” said Brooke Weitzman, an attorney who this year sued the county on behalf of the homeless.

Monday’s vote emerged from negotiations in that ongoing lawsuit, which targeted the county’s efforts to dismantle the homeless encampments along the Santa Ana River Trail. As part of an agreement in that case, the county in February moved nearly 700 people to local motels for 30-day stays.

But as motel vouchers began to expire on Friday, and the county prepared to move people to other temporary shelters, attorneys for the homeless alleged there isn’t enough capacity to shelter all of those who were being moved. Lawyers asked U.S. District Judge David O. Carter – who is presiding in the lawsuit – to intervene.

The temporary camps which could include actual tents being set up on county land has local residents infuriated.

In response, Irvine Mayor Don Wagner called an emergency city council meeting Tuesday evening to discuss options, including filing a lawsuit.

“I’m very disappointed by the county’s effort to shift a problem to Irvine that it had in Anaheim in the riverbed,” Wagner said.

The Gateway Pundit spoke to a married couple who will be attending the emergency city council meeting Tuesday evening.

The couple, who wish to remain anonymous said they are furious with the County’s decision to set up a ‘tent city’ near their home.

“We have young children and we don’t want homeless people living in tents and wandering around near the parks and grocery stores where we live,” the father told The Gateway Pundit.

Another conservative Orange County resident told The Gateway Pundit, “I’ve lived in Orange County my whole life. I grew up here and I hardly recognize it anymore. It wasn’t like this when I was a kid.”

“There was usually only one or two homeless men near the beach, but that’s about it,” the OC resident continued.

The city of Anaheim in Orange County, California just cleared out a tent city which shockingly ‘housed’ over 700 homeless people.

Thousands of pounds of debris was cleared including nearly 14,000 hypodermic needles.

The OC Register reported:

Here’s what was collected between Jan. 22 and March 3 from a more than two-mile stretch of bike trail roughly from I-5 in Orange to Ball Road in Anaheim, according to OC Public Works spokesman Shannon Widor:

  • 404 tons of debris
  • 13,950 needles (approximate number based on what disposal containers hold)
  • 5,279 pounds of hazardous waste (human waste, propane, pesticides and other materials)

Orange County, California has traditionally been a conservative pocket in Southern California.

Unfortunately, the disease of liberalism has infected the conservative, family-oriented county thanks to illegal immigration.

More illegal immigrants live in Southern California than anywhere else in the country.

Read the full report by the OC Register here.

Update: The Gateway Pundit spoke with Orange County residents who attended the emergency meeting in Laguna Niguel Tuesday evening.

“Supervisor Todd Spitzer told us tonight that 250 homeless people have refused the care that was previously offered. The homeless people they want to dump in our city are the lowest of the low-child molesters, drug addicts and violent offenders,” the OC resident told The Gateway Pundit.

“The piece of land the ‘tent city’ may be built on is next to a KinderCare [daycare center] and a library. They will be putting our children in danger,” an angry Laguna Niguel resident told The Gateway Pundit.

The meeting was packed with concerned citizens. It was standing room only in the main room; an additional room was also packed and people were overflowing into the hallway.

Photos of the emergency city council meeting at Laguna Niguel City Hall provided to The Gateway Pundit by witnesses who attended:


Laguna Niguel City Hall: standing room only

Laguna Niguel City Hall
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Cristina began writing for The Gateway Pundit in 2016 and she is now the Associate Editor.

You can email Cristina Laila here, and read more of Cristina Laila's articles here.

 

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