The OC Funders Roundtable attended the OC Forum Wednesday, November 15 to take part in the initial dialogue around ending homelessness in Orange County. Hosted by OCFR member Orange County United Way, the forum featured a conversation between Keith Morrison, NBC Dateline correspondent, and Andrae Bailey, CEO of Lead Homelessness Initiative.
Recently, Orange County United Way, in partnership with Jamboree Housing and the University of California, Irvine, developed a Real Cost Study on Homelessness in Orange County. This report, which can be viewed here, found that among other things, it costs twice as much to care for someone on the streets vs. housing them. Costs are highest in Orange County’s health care service sector.
Andrae Bailey encouraged the business, philanthropic, faith-based and government community to come together to combat homelessness, starting with humanizing the homeless and learning their stories. People need help rebuilding their lives and those with underlying challenges such as job loss, family trauma and health and substance abuse often are not able to do it on their own. Every community across America struggles with homelessness, and those that have figured out how to address the challenge have all done it by utilizing data, facts and caring for the people most impacted.
The OC Funders Roundtable is pleased to partner around this important issue and looks forward to continuing dialogue and discussion.
The OC Funders Roundtable is a community of philanthropists committed to improving outcomes for Orange County and beyond. Our mission is to advance social impact by supporting, strengthening, and building adaptive leadership across our nonprofit and philanthropic community.