County survey finds finances top cause of unsheltered homelessness; few sought help before losing housing

Doug Becht, director of the Office of Care Coordination, presented "Falling Through the Safety Net," a county-conducted survey of 840 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, to the Orange County Continuum of Care Board and the Commission to Address Homelessness on Sept. 10. Becht said the survey was deployed in March 2025 by CityNet and sampled roughly 20% of each city's unsheltered population as reported in the 2024 point-in-time count.

The survey, which Becht described as focused on prevention, found that financial factors were the most common contributor to people becoming homeless. "Finances receive the highest response," Becht said in the presentation, which showed that nearly eight in 10 respondents selected finances as a contributing factor and that many reported monthly earned incomes below local median levels. Becht noted that 71% of respondents reported monthly incomes below $3,000 prior to becoming unhoused, and many were paying less than $1,000 toward housing when they lost it.

Becht emphasized the study's sampling limits: it covered only unsheltered people encountered by outreach teams and therefore does not represent sheltered people or those who are at risk but never became homeless. He warned results are self-reported and that some categories (for example, disability) may be undercounted because of question wording or reluctance to disclose vulnerabilities.

Other key findings included: - A range of lengths of homelessness among respondents, from under a week (7%) to more than 20 years (4%). - Nearly 20% reported living in vehicles, a group outreach teams find difficult to engage continuously. - Only 12% of respondents said they sought help before becoming homeless; among those who sought help, food assistance and meals were the most-reported services. - About 17.5% reported having a friend or family member who could help them at the time of the survey, suggesting widely eroded personal safety nets. - High rates of prior system involvement (incarceration, parole/probation, foster care) and elevated self-reported rates of cognitive, emotional/behavioral and physical disabilities compared with earlier local surveys; Becht said these disability figures are likely underestimates.

The presentation drew detailed discussion from board and commission members. Several asked for more granular analysis of the cohort that became homeless within the last one to two years and proposed cross-tabulations (for example, comparing newly homeless vs. long-term unsheltered people and pre/post-COVID cohorts) to better target prevention strategies. "We can do that," Becht said about producing cross-tabs and deeper analysis, and he encouraged partners to suggest analytic priorities.

Public and board commenters urged greater flexibility for prevention funding to reach people who are couch-surfing or living informally with friends and family. One board member noted that 44% of respondents reported living with friends or family before losing housing and warned that eligibility rules (such as requiring a three-day eviction notice from a landlord) exclude many households who are at risk.

Steve McNally, a Costa Mesa resident and behavioral-health advisory board member, told the commission the county had previously invested heavily in mental-health services. "So that's $240,000,000 of direct mental health services," McNally said, highlighting past county funding and urging an "unsiloed" approach to data and accountability across agencies.

Several participants urged building predictive tools and early-warning systems to flag at-risk households earlier and to broaden outreach beyond web-based resources, which do not reach many unsheltered people. Vice Chair Nisha Mohenra and others urged using the survey data to support a proactive prevention strategy that pairs flexible financial help with supportive services.

Chair Vicente Sarmiento, who identified himself as an Orange County supervisor, concluded by stressing prevention as a cost-effective strategy and by asking staff to return with a plan to expand prevention services. "It costs 1 tenth the amount to be able to prevent somebody, from being housed than finding them on the back end," Sarmiento said, urging outreach improvements and better resource communication.

Next steps and follow-up: presenters said a full written report would be released in the coming weeks and that staff would return with more detailed analyses, including requested cross-tabs and potential city-level breakdowns. The COC board will incorporate the findings into its strategic plan and consider them when refining homelessness prevention and housing allocation strategies.

(Reporting note: all quoted and attributed statements come from speakers in the meeting transcript. The survey covered only people experiencing unsheltered homelessness; it did not include youth under 18, and the presenter acknowledged the sample does not represent sheltered or at-risk-but-not-homeless populations.)