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Garcia, Stephanie From: Tim Johnson < Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2018 11:26 AM To: eComment; Pulido, Miguel; Sarmiento, Vicente; Martinez, Michele; Solorio, Jose; Benavides, David; Villegas, Juan; Tinajero, Sal; Godinez, Raul; Kaka, Hafsa Subject: Homeless- Closed Session Councilmembers, City Manager Godinez, and Homeless Services Manager Kaka... I understand that the Council will have a special closed session today. My assumption is that you will be discussing the homeless issues as it relates to the lawsuits the city is in and informal discussions with Judge Carter. I believe that your group has likely recently received some feedback from the community as it relates to Santa Ana expanding its emergency housing capacity. My gut tells me that since those who have taken the time to provide feedback has been more in the "against" than the "in favor" of column- likely because it is human nature to voice opposition as opposed to support. Plus, I truly believe that a lot of folks are mis-informed which is not unreasonable since we have done a poorjob of educating our population about the realities of homelessness and how to solve it. I want you to k now that there are quite a few residents who support expanded emergency housing and more importantly, using it as a stepping stone towards permanent supportive housing with wraparound services (PSH). This includes many residents in the area of town that I live in North of 17th Street. I would like to remind your group of a few items that is important while considering your next step of action: 1. Homeless Count -The point in time homeless count that was put together so quickly and professionally earlier this year, showed that Santa Ana had over 1K unsheltered individuals (1030 1 believe is the exact figure). I participated in this count and can honestly say that the 1K figure is the absolute "floor" because the next week at Judge Carter's hearing I spoke to multiple homeless folks who were in SA on that early morning and indicated that they were not counted. As a reminder, about half of those unsheltered individuals reported themselves to from Santa Ana and about half from outside of Santa Ana. This would mean that at a minimum we have 500 unsheltered homeless living on the streets that are from Santa Ana. There is a lot of talk about other cities transporting their homeless here which happens but regardless, 500 would seem to be our responsibility at a minimum. This figure is likely much higher now due to the Armory closing down. As a reminder the 1K unsheltered does not include the almost 600 sheltered homeless at that point in time count who were living in shelters. 2. The Courtyard -The Courtyard I believe is a County facility. However, some of the indirect costs associated with the shelter are borne by the City, residents, schools, teachers, students and local business owners. Not all of the costs are dollars and cents. I believe that the County is considering a better location for this county shelter, which may be a good thing in the long run. 3. Armory- As you know the Armory has closed for the season. This impacts the number of folks who are in our neighborhoods, sleeping on the streets, and looking for services. 4. Quality of Life- The quality of life of Santa Ana residents are impacted by the homeless living on the streets. In our neighborhood, we have seen arson in Santiago Creek, encampments in Santiago Creek and local parks taking away green space and reasonable enjoyment of our local resources, package thefts and car break-ins that at some may be attributable to an increased homeless population without shelter, increased visual drug usage, lack of families and kids willing to use the Santa Ana library (my family included ... we just went to the Orange Public Library), seeing increased panhandling on street corners, and most concerning possibly are seeing so many who are in obvious need of mental health services walking in the middle of streets or otherwise being a danger. Having said all of the above, I would like to encourage our Council to move forward with a PSH plan using emergency housing as a stepping stone to get folks off the street while the PSH is being built. We need to look at emergency housing differently though. It needs to be done in way that the unsheltered homeless will be willing to go 1 ��