On-campus, local organizations address Orange County’s ongoing homelessness crisis

Chapman’s Poor People’s Campaign club and Family Promise Orange County promote awareness about people experiencing homelessness locally and nationally. Photo courtesy of Emma Drake

There are nearly 7,000 people experiencing homeless on a given night in Orange County.

Since the median home price in the county hit $900,000 July 20, the difficulty of finding affordable housing while working a job that pays minimum wage has immensely increased. Numerous local and national organizations with chapters in Orange County — like the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival — fight to prevent homelessness.

With chapters across the U.S., the Poor People’s Campaign has reached Chapman with the establishment of an on-campus club.

The main goals of the Poor People's Campaign are to promote economic advancement for all impoverished Americans and lobby the federal government to commit billions of dollars to end poverty and unemployment in the United States.

“It's really special we have our own club here on campus, because Chapman is such a privileged community in the first place, and it's really easy to get caught up in that Chapman bubble where you are not realizing what's going on in the surrounding community,” said Isabelle Garcia, one of the club’s co-presidents.

The campaign originally began in the 1960s rooted in rhetoric from Martin Luther King Jr. and was reinvented in 2018 by William Barber II, one of the current co-chairs of the Poor People's Campaign.

The Chapman’s Poor People’s Campaign presidents said they aim to educate the Chapman community on issues such as homelessness and systemic racism in Orange County by holding meetings with local community leaders and hosting various volunteer opportunities around the community, as the group seeks to promote awareness and create lasting change.    

Tristan Spangler-Dunning, a 2021 alumnus, was inspired to bring the Poor People’s Campaign to campus in the spring of 2020 after sitting in on one of the organization’s regional meetings. Spangler-Dunning soon befriended Emma Drake, a junior peace studies major, and Garcia, a senior psychology major, who he encouraged to join the club. Though Drake and Garcia were unaware at the time, they would eventually take over as co-presidents after Spangler-Dunning graduated, less than a year after joining. 

As the three were trying to get the club off the ground, COVID-19 hit, and all plans were put on hold.

“It was really that friendship with Tristan that got me into it, but the Poor People's Campaign itself has really grown on me,” Drake said. “Realizing all of the amazing things (the club does) and the potential this club has on campus is what got me into it.” 

Garcia was accepted into the student fellowship program in February 2020, which is offered by the Poor People’s Campaign, providing her the opportunity to go to Washington, D.C for a weekend to learn about the history of the organization and how to cultivate student involvement with the campaign on college campuses alongside other fellows from across the country.

Although the pandemic may have halted plans, Drake and Garcia are eager to get the club going. The co-presidents were proud to explain Chapman is the first university to create their own Poor People’s Campaign club on-campus.

The group holds meetings the first Friday of every month 12-1:30 p.m. All students are welcome and encouraged to join. Although the club is not recognized as an official chapter of the national organization, it still emphasizes the same goals.

The Orange County homelessness crisis is fought by numerous organizations off campus as well on a local scale such as Family Promise Orange County, an interfaith non-profit organization that similarly helps families experiencing homeless achieve housing stability. Malia Cary, the community impact manager with Family Promise, first heard about the nonprofit through her church congregation. 

After volunteering with Family Promise for years, Cary joined the staff full time just over a year and a half ago. In her current position, she deals mostly with external relations and acts as the community liaison with other nonprofits, partner agencies and community groups that want to help out. She also helps organize and run the emergency shelter program, which encourages community groups like church congregations and synagogues to host families and provide warm meals. 

“Through volunteering and things that are important to you, you end up kind of finding out ‘This is where I'm supposed to be,’” Cary said. “I tell people it's the job that I’ve probably had the most work at the end of the day to do, but it doesn’t feel like work because you’re helping people and making a difference in your community.”

A few years ago, when a family with five children came to stay with Cary’s church, it was the eldest child’s 13th birthday. Cary described him as a stereotypical teenage boy: a bit shy and awkward. 

When a kid in the shelter program has a birthday, the organization tries their best to make it special by pairing with community groups to gather decorations and birthday cakes, according to Cary. She told the boy the group wanted to celebrate his birthday by eating cake and singing him “Happy Birthday,” and he appeared slightly embarrassed.

“At the end of it, I saw a little smile; I think we got through,” Cary said. “It's those little moments that you’re like, ‘O.K., he's probably going through the hardest moment of his life, but at least we gave him that little moment of joy,’” Cary said.

There are numerous groups in addition to Family Promise and the Poor People’s Campaign that fight to end homelessness in Orange County, including Mary’s Kitchen, a local soup kitchen that Orange city officials are trying to shut down due to reports of excess criminal activity from the homeless population.

“If you really want to work on ending homelessness in Orange County — in our community — really get behind an organization like (Family Promise) and give your efforts, whether that's your time or your donations,” Cary said. “However you want to give your talents or treasures, really work with an organization, because they're the boots on the ground that are already working to end this problem.”