Orange County supervisors are about to put one nonprofit in charge of both their homeless shelters despite the operator failing to hit their goals for getting more people into housing for years, saying the shortfall is from the county’s own lack of affordable housing.
People Assisting the Homeless, or PATH, are set to receive over $45 million from the county to run the Yale shelter in Santa Ana and Bridges at Kraemer Place shelter in Anaheim if supervisors sign off on the contract tomorrow, which controls over 600 shelter beds.
Reports from the county show that while they’ve succeeded at enrolling their residents in housing programs, PATH largely failed to get them moved into permanent housing or helped them increase their income.
A county staff report from April 2025 found that since 2022, PATH never hit the goal of having 20% of homeless people departing the shelter head to permanent housing from the Yale Shelter, with their peak at 16% in 2022.
Only 6% of homeless residents at the shelter increased their income, compared to the 15% the county asked for.
While PATH already runs the Yale Shelter, they’d be replacing Mercy House in running the Bridges shelter in Anaheim.
A representative from PATH declined to comment, referring all questions on their work to the county.
But two county supervisors said it’s not PATH’s fault they can’t get people moved into housing because there isn’t enough to go around.
“The sad reality is that we will not be able to place all those who need assistance into more permanent housing, given the shortage of available units in the County,” said Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento in a Tuesday statement. “We are realistically unable to meet the ever-increasing demand.”
Supervisor Katrina Foley agreed in a Tuesday interview, saying that next year the situation should be different as more of the county’s permanent supportive housing projects open up and that PATH has done a good job at getting people eligible for housing.
“We don’t have enough permanent supportive housing,” Foley said. “It isn’t because they’re (PATH) not trying, it’s because there’s not placements available.”
The rest of the county supervisors did not respond to requests for comment.
Under the proposed contract up for consideration at OC Supervisor’s 9:30 a.m. meeting tomorrow, officials are also asking for PATH to enroll at least 70% of homeless people in insurance programs while they’re at the shelter, and connect at least half of them with other county medical services.
Foley said she hoped to see most of those people sign up for CalOptima, the county’s health plan for the poor, noting that it would help the county pay for their care.
“They’re just not signed up because they don’t have an address or a phone,” Foley said. “This will help us to offset the cost of the services if they’re ensured.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
