“We will be providing the sack lunches at ACT V,” hospital Healthy Communities Manager George Avial said Wednesday at a public presentation of the survey findings.
The contents will have to pass muster with the hospital nutritionist.
Kathryn Doe, who attended the presentation, said it would be better to include food the homeless will eat rather than what the nutritionist thinks would be good for them.
The assessment of the needs of the homeless was conducted concurrently with the telephone interviews of the general population, which resulted in 401 completed assessments.
About three-quarters of the unsheltered rated local programs and shelters for the homeless as poor or at best fair, with the caveat that the survey was conducted before ACT V was operational.
Only 23% of Friendship Shelter residents gave homeless programs a bad rating. However, 41% of the general population perceived the programs as fair or poor.
Forty-seven percent of the 36 unsheltered homeless interviewed reported having family in town. Fifty-five percent of those living at Friendship Shelter have family here.
Ninety percent of the unsheltered homeless came to Laguna from other parts of Orange County, and 70% were homeless before arriving here. Forty-three percent came to town within the six months prior to the survey.
Seventy-five percent of Friendship Shelter residents came from Orange County, and 76% were homeless before being accepted at the shelter. Fifty-five percent of the residents came to town within the last six months before the survey — 12% higher than the unsheltered homeless.
And 55% of them have family in town, 8% more than the unsheltered.
