THERE IS AN AFFORDABLE HOUSING CRISIS IN ORANGE COUNTY

• Rents and home prices are soaring
• Many OC families are caught in the gap
• This crisis threatens the county’s economic growth
• Underlying causes:
  • Land costs
  • Neighborhood resistance
  • Growth of lower-paying jobs
  • Scarcity of suitably zoned land
  • Development fees
  • Focus on high-end housing development
• Average OC rent for a two-bedroom apartment is over $1,200 per month
• Families earning $10 or less per hour cannot afford housing costs
• Thousands of families are trapped in a vicious cycle of moving from motels to temporary shelters, and ultimately to the streets.

LOCAL CHALLENGES

• The jobs-to-housing imbalance continues to exacerbate the homeless issue. Orange County’s high housing costs, low vacancy rates and increased number of service-sector jobs prevent working families and individuals from accessing or sustaining permanent housing.
• In 1998, Congress approved sweeping changes to the welfare system. While welfare reform has transitioned thousands of families off of public aid and into work, the average wage for welfare-to-work clients in Orange County is between $7 to $8 per hour.
• With five-year welfare time limits going into effect, higher numbers of families are falling into homelessness.