City has an official 'homeless strategy'

Many Yorba Lindans might be surprised to learn the city has an approved “homeless strategy” with “actions” intended to prevent homelessness, address emergency shelter and transitional housing needs and preserve and maintain existing affordable housing.

The strategy is one component of a City Council-adopted Annual Action Plan, which is, in turn, a part of a previously approved Consolidated Plan that outlines how Yorba Linda will spend federal funds received through the Housing and Urban Development Department.

This year, the city is seeking $212,515 in Community Development Block Grant funding to be added to $35,056 left from $195,930 received last year, both down from $294,551 in 2010-11.

None of this year's funding will directly address the “homeless strategy” detailed in the city's second-ever Action Plan, although $50,000 is planned for low- and moderate-income owner-occupants of single-family residences and mobile homes as rehabilitation grants.

Another $31,877 will help fund the lunch-time Senior Nutrition Program used by some 500 seniors at the Community Center. The rest will go to Town Center rehabilitation ($88,135) and program administration ($42,503).

The most recent figures available from Orange County's Housing and Community Services Department puts the county's homeless population at about 35,000, 30 per cent individuals and 70 percent families, with about 3,400 “available beds” identified at shelters.

Yorba Linda's homeless population was noted at four individuals, based on 2009 interviews with 571 homeless individuals who answered a question about their last place of residence.

The Placentia-Yorba Linda school district reported 19 homeless children in 2006-07, and officials pegged the city's homeless as “principally transient” along Imperial Highway and Yorba Linda Boulevard, with small one- to two-person camps at Featherly Regional Park.

Yorba Linda is part of the Orange County Partnership, a county-wide effort by government and community agencies to address homelessness on a regional basis, and the city has promised to seek more partnerships and funding opportunities to target homeless needs.

The city's Action Plan focuses on preventing homelessness by providing affordable housing in 521 apartment or condominium rental units with 55-year covenants, and coordinating with the county's Housing Authority to provide Section 8 rental aid to some 95 low-income households.

The city also “will continue to contract with the Orange County Fair Housing Council to provide a wide range of fair housing services to ensure equal housing opportunities....” and mediate disputes “to minimize evictions and unfair rent increases,” the Plan noted.

And, in 2011, along with a state-mandated Housing Element, the city adopted zoning implementation measures to allow “transitional and supportive housing as a permitted use in all residential zones subject to the same standards as similar residential uses.”

Also allowed are emergency shelters for up to 30 occupants in M-1 (manufacturing) zoning, permitted use in M-1 for shelters with more than 30 occupants, and single-room occupancy hotels in RM-20 and RM-30 zones.