Santa Ana riverbed homeless ask supervisors for portable bathrooms, showers

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More than a dozen homeless people living on the banks of the Santa Ana River – and their advocates – pleaded with the Orange County Board of Supervisors to bring portable bathrooms and showers to the encampment, saying people there are suffering because they lack access to basic amenities.

Yet the county said it is unlikely to do so because it wants to focus resources on long-term solutions to homelessness and does not want to encourage people to live in the area, which it calls unsafe.

Several homeless people at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting spoke about the daily difficulty they experience in finding bathrooms to use, places to clean themselves and locations to fill their water jugs.

Yvonne Martinez, who said she lives in a riverbed tent with her five children, ages 10 to 16, said she takes her kids to a nearby park to use the bathroom and bathe in public sinks so they can be clean at school. But she said Orange police sometimes tell her to leave the park.

“I’m here asking you guys to please help us out,” said Martinez, who soon after was contacted by the county’s public health workers and a nonprofit that helps low-income families find housing.

Homeless people living in the riverbed regularly try to use bathrooms at nearby businesses and if they cannot, sometimes defecate in buckets.

County spokeswoman Carrie Braun said the county had attempted to help people in the riverbed but that many had “repeatedly declined resources by county outreach and engagement teams.” She also pointed out that the county’s emergency Courtyard shelter in Santa Ana, which opened in October, still has space.

“For the county to provide short-term solutions like restrooms or showers to individuals encamped along the flood control channel does not encourage progress from homelessness to sustainable solutions,” Braun said. “The county will continue to focus its effort on long-term solutions that respect the rights and responsibilities of both the housed and unhoused in our communities.”

The county is set to open another year-round homeless shelter in Anaheim early next month. It is expected to shelter 100 people when it opens, focusing on quickly finding them permanent housing.

In late March, Supervisor Shawn Nelson directed staff to find county-owned properties that could accommodate an emergency homeless shelter or campground for homeless people. Nelson said Wednesday that he soon would be releasing his suggestions for potential locations that could be used for that purpose.

Last year, the county installed portable toilets at the Civic Center for the area’s homeless encampment but removed them after the Courtyard shelter was opened.