The County of Orange will provide motel rooms for homeless families during cold weather

Santa Ana, Calif. (January 14, 2025) – At its board meeting today, the Orange County Board of Supervisors supported the item, introduced by Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, to create the Weather Activated RooMs for Families program (WARM) to provide motel stays during cold weather for unhoused families in the Second District.

“It is unacceptable to think about unhoused families facing storms or extreme cold in a car or on the street,” said Supervisor Sarmiento. “I am grateful for the support of the school districts that serve our students as we move forward to provide this much-needed assistance to Second District families.”

The Supervisor outlined the next steps in launching the program, which will run from January through April 30th of this year and will be administered by the non-profit Families Forward.

The $200,000, allocated from Second District discretionary funds, will pay for the motel rooms, food assistance, and the administration of the program. “Families Forward will also work with the families to connect them to additional longer-term housing and social services resources,” added Supervisor Sarmiento. “While providing temporary shelter is key during the worst of the cold weather, we cannot forget the challenges faced by these families year-round.”

The Supervisor will bring together the school districts, Families Forward, and the County’s Office of Care Coordination to finalize the program implementation. The County will then put in place the agreements needed to launch and operate the program.

The schools will identify unhoused families and invite them to opt into the program. When cold weather is expected, the families can be contacted and placed in hotels or motels, in the city where the children attend school, for a minimum of two nights. They will also be provided with transportation and food assistance.

Supervisor Sarmiento serves as Chair of the Commission to Address Homelessness and spearheaded efforts to launch a Homeless Prevention and Stabilization Pilot Program, a study on the use of small- scale housing as an option to provide additional affordable housing, and on creating a regional approach to providing shelter during inclement weather.

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Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions.

When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.