ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Once the sun has set, a team of volunteer doctors, nurses, and medical students with the Wound Walk organization embark on their nightly mission of bringing medical care to those who call outside home.  

Soon after setting up their makeshift clinic on an empty sidewalk in Santa Ana, people show up as if they had an appointment to catch.

Wound Walk founder Michael Sean Wright says it’s a result of the trust his organization has gained over almost a decade treating the homeless community with everything from scrapes to open sores. 

Although he says recently passed anti-camping ordinances jeopardize the ground they’ve gained.

“When people get moved around and dislocated, then the folks who are the social workers who have been working with you, case managers, we don’t know where to find them. And so there’s a disconnect there,” said Wright.

Many cities across the country have adopted such bans since the Supreme Court ruled local governments can arrest and cite people experiencing homelessness for sleeping outside. Here in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged officials to adopt these ordinances, and in Orange County cities such as Anaheim, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Brea, and Newport, among others, listened, having adopted these enforcements throughout the past couple of months.

While still having a smaller homeless population than neighboring Los Angeles, Orange County has seen their number grow by 28% from 2022 to 2024, according to their latest Point-In-Time Count. 

Wright says he understands cities are feeling the pressure to address the issue, but he does not think it solves the problem. 

“We’ll take Anaheim as an example, they set up a pretty big enforcement program, and those folks just moved right here to Santa Ana,” said Wright. 

The pokesperson for the city of Anaheim, Mike Lyster says in September the city adopted three ordinances banning the blocking of sidewalks, illegally selling bikes and parts and smoking in parks. 

They began using their ordinance to clear an encampment at Chaparral Park, where he says about 20 people were set up at any given time and had become a nuisance for park goers. 

“So what we did was enforcement where when they moved to the sidewalk, well, now they would meet police officers. Under our new ordinance, which restricts the blocking of a sidewalk, and they would be able to enforce there if they needed to,” said Lyster. 

He said the city provides help, including shelter and services, to those they meet, and that they offer court-involved individuals the chance to work with a social worker as a sentencing alternative..

Still, he acknowledges people shuffle to the next city but notes that is why they are seeing other cities follow suit with their own ordinance 

“What we’ll also see is that naturally, some people may move from city to city. But it is not our goal to move someone from Anaheim to one of our neighbors. And that’s why we work very carefully with our neighboring cities. We all need to be doing the same thing, which is trying to address the root causes of homelessness and trying to get people off the street,” said Lyster. 

However, Jessy, a homeless person who has received medical help from Wound Walk, says most people in his situation do not have a trusting relationship with law enforcement or officials to accept help. 

“It’s like they’re just taking our things away and then making it harder for us to live,” said Jessy.

Lyster notes that while the city continues to expand traditional approaches like transitional homes and shelters, they also installed cameras at parks, which they believe serve as a deterrent and a second set of eyes for police. 

Although Wright says he believes it’s not the best solution. 

“So while we understand cities are doing what they need to do to protect their businesses, to protect the folks that live there, we also need a place so that we can stop the cycle of arresting folks. They just come right back out,” said Wright. 

Adding a medical-first approach would be more beneficial. 

“We need detox beds. We have three patients right now who want to go to detox. We just don’t have the beds for them.”

 Lyster agrees, saying 60% of the folks they encounter have a drug use issue, but says they simply need more beds to do that. 

“We could use dozens more, if not in the hundreds. The challenge is when you finally encounter someone who says, okay, I’m ready to take your offer of help. That’s when you need the bed,” said Lyster. 

It’s a challenge he says they are working on, but he stresses that anti-camping policies are a starting point 

“We all need to recognize that trying to in any way, even unintentionally, keep people on the streets is inhumane and is no longer acceptable. And we all need to come to grips with that. Sadly, we have seen people die in our parks from drug overdoses, and there is in no way that that would ever be acceptable,” said Lyster.