Let’s End Veteran Homelessness for Good in Orange County

No veteran should be without a place to call home.

The brave men and women who served so selflessly and courageously to protect the freedoms and futures of all Americans have carried a heavy and honorable burden, and our country owes them for their service.

According to the 2019 Point in Time Count, there were 311 veterans experiencing homelessness in Orange County. The majority of those veterans were experiencing unsheltered homelessness, which means they were sleeping outside.

Over 100 of those veterans were chronically homeless, meaning that they had been experiencing homelessness for over 12 months while struggling with a disabling condition. Experiencing homelessness is extremely difficult, especially for our veterans

Take Army veteran, Day, for example. She returned from deployment in 2012 and was diagnosed with PTSD while adapting and adjusting back to civilian life. Even though she was working 60-hour weeks at two jobs, she couldn’t build enough savings to afford her own move-in costs and rent. Day became homeless and was living in a borrowed car. Her situation seemed hopeless, but then our WelcomeHomeOC program helped her find an apartment where she could use her HUD VASH housing voucher. Today, she is grateful for a space to call her own. You can watch her story here:

To learn more about what Veteran Homelessness looks like in Orange County and how it’s being addressed, check out our Community Chat Facebook Live series that aired on Veterans Day.

• An Overview of Veteran Homelessness in Orange County
• Property Owners Ending Veteran Homelessness
• Service Providers Supporting Those Who Served

WHAT WE’RE DOING TO HELP

Our WelcomeHomeOC program promotes participation of private property owners and management companies across Orange County to make their units available to rent to homeless veterans, families, and individuals with a housing voucher.

United to End Homelessness provides landlords in the WelcomeHomeOC Property Owner Network with financial incentives such as double security deposits, sign-on bonus, holding fees and contingency funds to make minor repairs, and other assurance to overcome barriers to housing.

To date, we’ve housed 58 veterans through WelcomeHomeOC.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING

In addition, 124 new units of Permanent Supportive Housing, offering several on-site resources for veterans, have been built in Orange County to welcome veterans who are experiencing homelessness.

• • Heroes Landing in Santa Ana
    • Developed by Jamboree Housing
    • Offers 75 units
  • Veterans Village in Placentia
    • Developed by Mercy Housing
    • Offers 49 units

While there still remains a significant amount of work to be done in ending Veteran Homelessness in Orange County for good, we’re confident we can help make this a reality.

Only as a unified community can we continue to reduce Veteran Homelessness in Orange County and reach our goal of ensuring every veteran who fought for our freedom has a place to call home.

If you or someone you know is a property owner, you can sign-up for our WelcomeHomeOC Workshop to find out more about the program and how you can be a part of the solution.