Housing First emerged in New York City during the early 1990s as a groundbreaking approach to ending chronic homelessness. By 2003, it had gained national recognition as an evidence-based strategy, and between 2010 and 2016 it became the cornerstone of the federal government’s response to homelessness because decades of research consistently demonstrated that providing permanent housing first leads to greater housing stability, improved health outcomes, reduced chronic homelessness, and lower long-term public costs.
Housing First originated from a simple but transformative question: What do people experiencing homelessness say they need most to end their homelessness? The answer was clear—safe, stable, permanent housing.
Housing First recognizes that housing is not the reward for recovery; it is the foundation that makes recovery, stability, employment, improved health, and self-sufficiency possible. Once people have a permanent place to live, they are far better positioned to address mental health needs, substance use disorders, chronic medical conditions, employment, education, and family reunification.
Despite decades of evidence supporting Housing First, many
Despite decades of evidence supporting Housing First, many elected officials throughout Orange County, including many of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, continue to treat critically needed housing primarily as a market commodity rather than as essential public infrastructure and a fundamental human right. As a result, thousands of Orange County residents remain unhoused despite overwhelming evidence that permanent housing is the most effective long-term solution to homelessness.
Every year across Orange County, hundreds of people without a fixed abode lose their lives while enduring the relentless hardships of homelessness, struggling hour by hour and day by day simply to survive. These deaths are not inevitable. They are the tragic consequence of systemic failures, inadequate public investment, and the lack of political will to ensure access to safe, affordable permanent housing, healthcare, and the most basic necessities required to sustain human life.
Over the past ten years, more than 3,471 people without a fixed abode have died throughout Orange County. During just the first six months of 2026, more than 100 unhoused individuals lost their lives. Every one of these deaths represents not only a personal tragedy but also a profound failure of public policy.
The proposed Orange County Fiscal Year 2026–27 budget
The proposed Orange County Fiscal Year 2026–27 budget continues to prioritize incarceration and law enforcement over permanent housing and homelessness solutions. The Board of Supervisors proposes allocating approximately $320 million in discretionary Net County Cost (NCC) funding for jail operations and approximately $357 million in discretionary NCC funding to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department while dedicating comparatively almost nothing of its discretionary funding to developing critically needed permanent housing for people with extremely low, very low, and low incomes.
Year after year, Orange County’s budget priorities demonstrate a continuing commitment to managing the consequences of homelessness rather than preventing and ending it. Public dollars continue to flow disproportionately toward enforcement, displacement, incarceration, emergency response, and crisis intervention instead of toward permanent housing, supportive services, and Housing First strategies that have repeatedly proven to reduce homelessness and save lives.
Supervisors have frequently attributed persistent homelessness to rising housing costs, limited cooperation from cities, insufficient land available for development, high cost of building materials, or budget constraints. While these challenges are real, they do not diminish the County’s responsibility to make policy and budget decisions that prioritize proven, evidence-based solutions capable of saving lives.
The County’s budget ultimately reflects its priorities
The County’s budget ultimately reflects its priorities. Despite repeatedly citing limited financial resources for housing investments, the Board of Supervisors, except for one, voted to increase their personal annual compensation by approximately $49,000. Moreover, for approximately every $1 allocated to Orange County Community Resources, the proposed budget allocates approximately $114 to Public Protection. These funding decisions demonstrate a continued preference for responding to homelessness after it occurs rather than investing in the permanent housing necessary to prevent and end it.
Housing First is not simply another government program. It is an evidence-based public policy that saves lives, improves public health, strengthens communities, increases the effectiveness of first responders by reducing unnecessary emergency calls, and makes more responsible and effective use of taxpayer dollars. Numerous studies have shown that providing permanent housing is significantly less expensive than relying on repeated hospitalizations, emergency medical care, law enforcement, jail stays, and other crisis services.
Orange County possesses both the financial resources and the legal authority to dramatically save lives by reducing homelessness if it chooses to make permanent housing a genuine budget priority. The question is no longer whether Housing First works. The evidence has answered that question repeatedly over the past three decades. The real question is whether the Orange County Supervisors have the political will to take the necessary bold actions to align public policy and public spending with what the evidence clearly demonstrates.
Every budget is a moral document
Every budget is a moral document and is ultimately a statement of a community’s values. Government is judged not by the size of its budget but by whether that budget protects human dignity, preserves life, and serves the common good. Public funds should be invested in policies that save lives and strengthen communities—not in advancing political image, self-promotion, or reelection campaigns.
Orange County must choose to invest in housing before incarceration, prevention before punishment, and people before politics.
The time for false rhetoric and symbolic gestures has passed. The time for meaningful action is now.
End the criminalization of poverty.
Invest in permanent housing.
Fully implement Housing First.
Save lives.
Ending homelessness in Orange County requires sustained leadership,
Ending homelessness in Orange County requires sustained leadership, political will, meaningful public investment, and a real commitment to evidence-based Housing First policies that prioritize permanent housing over punishment. Orange County and its cities could and should:
- Expand Investment in Housing. Supervisors could place a countywide Housing Bond measure before voters and increase funding for low-income housing and permanent supportive housing by rebalancing discretionary (Net County Cost) budget priorities to better address homelessness.
- Prevent Homelessness Before It Begins. Invest in proven homelessness prevention strategies, including rental assistance, eviction prevention, rent stabilization, legal assistance for tenants, and stronger tenant protections that help individuals and families remain safely housed.
- Prioritize Housing First and Supportive Services. Expand permanent supportive housing and invest in compassionate outreach, housing navigation, healthcare, behavioral health & treatment, employment assistance, and other supportive services that address the root causes of homelessness and promote long-term housing stability.
- Protect the Health, Safety, and Dignity of People Experiencing Homelessness. Until permanent housing is available, provide humane services that include sanitation and trash collection, 24-hour access to hygiene facilities, secure storage for personal belongings, free public transportation for employment, education, healthcare, and housing-related appointments, and safer living conditions for people forced to live outdoors.
- Use Public Land to Address the Housing Crisis. Prioritize publicly owned land and underutilized public buildings for the development of affordable housing and permanent supportive housing serving extremely low-income, very low-income, and low-income residents before considering market-rate development.
- Accelerate Affordable Housing Development. Reform zoning and permitting processes, eliminate unnecessary administrative barriers, promote the development of SB2 zones, and streamline approvals that delay the construction and preservation of affordable and permanent supportive housing.
- Maximize State and Federal Resources. Aggressively pursue state and federal funding to expand affordable housing, preserve existing housing, increase rental assistance, strengthen homelessness prevention programs, and provide supportive services that help people obtain and maintain permanent housing.
Together, these actions would shift Orange County’s response from managing homelessness after it occurs to preventing homelessness and ending it through permanent housing, strategic public investment, and evidence-based Housing First policies that save lives, strengthen communities, and make more effective use of taxpayer re
Please Contact the Orange County Board of Supervisors
…and urge them to make Housing First—not the criminalization of homelessness and poverty—the dehumanizing foundation of the OC Supervisors’ response to homelessness.
If the OC Supervisors are serious about fulfilling
If the OC Supervisors are serious about fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities, ensuring the effective use of taxpayer dollars, and achieving lasting results, they must invest in solutions that address homelessness at its root. Permanent housing, paired with voluntary supportive services, offers a more economically effective, humane, and sustainable path forward than criminalization and its costly enforcement, fines, citations, and incarceration.
Orange County has the retheir funding and their focus toward housing security for all, recognizing that a safe, stable, permanent home provides the necessary foundation for personal growth, family well-being, community stability, and a stronger, healthier, and more economically prosperous Orange County
Contact the Orange County Board of Supervisors at:
Link: Contact the OC Board of Supervisors OR Email: comments@cob.oc.gov
Your voice matters…..Thank you!
Housing is a Human Right OC, Cofounder & Volunteer
People’s Homeless Task Force OC, Cofounder, Volunteer & Board Member
People’s Budget OC, Cofounder & Volunteer
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