Observe National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week

Orange County Board of Supervisors

Hunger and Homelessness

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION:
Tell the Orange County Board of Supervisors to End Hunger and Homelessness in OC!

To the Orange County Board of Supervisors,

November 15-22 is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, and your constituents have a message for you. In our rich but unequal county, everyone should have enough food to eat and a safe place to live. But too many of our residents in Orange County go hungry and homeless every night.

We demand that you contribute this rich county’s fair share to ending hunger and homelessness in OC. We demand that you:
       1) Commit discretionary dollars—WHICH YOU CONTROL—to ending this crisis.
        2) Put a funding measure on the ballot and let the voters decide.

In Orange County:

• One-in-five OC residents live in poverty. *

• One-in-four children in OC live in poverty. *

• Almost half of all student in OC (48.8%, or 231,160) are eligible for the Free and Reduced Price Lunch program for their major source of nutrition.

• Almost one-in-three low income older adults do not get enough food to eat

• The maximum Calfresh (SNAP/food stamps) benefit pays only about two dollars per person per meal – but the average meal costs about three times that amount.

• Calfresh benefits usually run out after about two or three weeks, leaving households with no benefits toward the end of the month.

• Most families on CalFresh go hungry some of the time.

• Because of OC’s high cost of housing, low income households must choose between food and paying rent.

• over 80,000 people in OC are on waiting lists for affordable housing.

• The number of people living on our streets has doubled since 2013.

• homelessness is a racial justice issue: while Blacks make up 2% of the overall population, Blacks make up 15% of all unhoused people living in shelters and 8.5% of unsheltered people.

• With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, evictions, foreclosures and poverty will increase.

      * According to California Poverty Measure

This is unacceptable, and it does not reflect the moral values of our community. We urge you to act immediately to end hunger and homelessness in OC.

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We will send the letter below "To: Orange County Board of Supervisors" from all who sign this petition.
You may include a personal comment when you sign the petition, in the Comments box.

Sponsored by
Housingisahumanright
HHROC

To: Orange County Board of Supervisors
From: [Your Name]

November 15-22 is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, and your constituents have a message for you. In our rich but unequal county, everyone should have enough food to eat and a safe place to live. But too many of our residents in Orange County go hungry and homeless every night.

We demand that you contribute this rich county’s fair share to ending hunger and homelessness in OC. We demand that you:
1) Commit discretionary dollars—WHICH YOU CONTROL—to ending this crisis.
2) Put a funding measure on the ballot and let the voters decide.

In Orange County:

• One-in-five OC residents live in poverty.
• One-in-four children in OC live in poverty.
• Almost half of all student in OC (48.8%, or 231,160) are eligible for the Free and Reduced Price Lunch program.
• Almost one-in-three low income older adults do not get enough food to eat
• The maximum Calfresh (SNAP/food stamps) benefit pays only about two dollars per person per meal – but the average meal costs about three times that amount.
• Calfresh benefits usually run out after about two or three weeks, leaving households with no benefits toward the end of the month.
• Most families on CalFresh go hungry some of the time.
• Because of OC’s high cost of housing, low income households must choose between food and paying rent.
• over 80,000 people in OC are on waiting lists for affordable housing.
• The number of people living on our streets has doubled since 2013.
• homelessness is a racial justice issue: while Blacks make up 2% of the overall population, Blacks make up 15% of all unhoused people living in shelters and 8.5% of unsheltered people.
• With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, eviction moratoriums, foreclosures and poverty will increase.

This is unacceptable, and it does not reflect the moral values of our community. We urge you to act immediately to end hunger and homelessness in OC.