Garden Grove releases five-year homelessness strategy; council highlights outreach and housing gaps

Garden Grove city staff on Tuesday presented a finalized 2025–2030 homelessness strategy that sets specific goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for outreach, housing placements and community engagement over the next five years.

The plan, presented by Assistant City Manager and Housing Authority Director Ursula Luna Reynosa and consultant Tim Throne, builds on a SWOT analysis and a countywide review and sets four goals: enhance communication and engagement, improve service delivery, leverage partnerships and funding, and improve quality of life for residents.

Why it matters: the strategy aims to translate earlier pilot programs and the city's street outreach work into sustained outcomes, but both staff and council members said the strategy faces countywide limits on permanent supportive housing, behavioral-health beds and capital funding.

"The KPIs are designed to track whether we're improving outcomes," Tim Throne said, summarizing targets such as maintaining an 85% communication-satisfaction score, ensuring 70% of clients are document-ready within 90 days of entry into the City's navigation center and increasing partner referrals and leveraged funds annually.

The presentation placed Garden Grove's efforts in a regional context: Orange County's 2024 point-in-time count identified 7,322 people experiencing homelessness on a single night countywide; the Central Service Planning Area accounts for roughly 47% of that total. The consultant noted that nearly half of people counted in the county first became homeless within the prior year, underscoring economic pressures.

Council members and staff highlighted on-the-ground successes tied to the Police Department's Special Resource Team (SRT). Luna Reynosa noted that the SRT made 5,071 contacts with unhoused individuals during the last fiscal year and referred 1,398 people to housing or services through coordinated outreach and encampment abatement efforts.

"The SRT team was able to make 5,071 contacts with unhoused individuals and they referred 1,398 individuals to housing and or services," Luna Reynosa said, praising the team's partnerships with public works and nonprofit providers.

SRT's Sergeant Jeffrey Brown and several officers were singled out by multiple council members for their role in building trust with people living outdoors. Council members also stressed the challenge that limited affordable housing and high development costs pose: staff said building a single permanent supportive housing unit can require a capital stack of roughly $500,000–$600,000 per door.

Staff emphasized several near-term programmatic priorities: continuing tenant-based rental assistance, expanding employment and income services (including planned on-site engagement with OC Workforce Solutions), and targeting behavioral-health and addiction resources where possible. The city also plans quarterly partner surveys and performance dashboards to measure progress.

Council response and next steps: Council members praised staff and public-safety partners and asked for follow-up items, including pursuing mental-health funding opportunities and stronger regional coordination for permanent housing. City Manager Lisa Kim and staff said the city will continue piloting service models and share updates with the council as KPIs are measured.

The council received the strategy for transmittal and discussion; staff said the PowerPoint would be posted to the city's website if streaming did not display the slides.

Ending: Council members and staff described the strategy as a foundation for continued work and said they will return with implementation updates and data on KPI performance.