Orange County outreach workers scrambled over the weekend to find enough motel rooms to house hundreds of homeless people set to be dislodged from their tent encampments at the Santa Ana River Trail as soon as Tuesday, Feb. 20.

As of the weekend, at least 116 homeless people had been relocated from the riverbed to numerous local motels, according to court documents. Another 80 beds were expected to open up by Monday. The county also was working on a six-month lease of 100 more rooms in a motel with accommodations large enough to house up to 282 people, the court documents stated.

Sean Knutsen is one of the homeless people at riverbed being placed at local motels as the county follows up on court plan that will allow clearing of the riverbed tent encampments. Knutsen shed a tear as he prepared to leave the riverbed. (Bill Alkofer, contributing photographer)

Homeless person Todd Lamothe takes the ramp for disabled people to board a bus near the Anaheim river bed encampment. He was given a motel room in Anaheim. (Bill Alkofer, contributing photographer)

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

Sean Knutsen ponders his situation as he gets on a bus which will transport him to a hotel in Anaheim. Dozens of homeless people were given rooms at hotels around Orange County (Bill Alkofer, contributing photographer)

Homeless person Michael “MJ” Diehl gets a kiss from his dog Osiris in a motel room he was given in Anaheim. (Bill Alkofer, contributing photographer)

Homeless people wait to board a bus near the Anaheim Stadium encampment. They were taken to local hotels by city buses.(Bill Alkofer, contributing photographer)



A homeless woman gets ready to leave on a bus that will take her to a hotel in Anaheim.(Bill Alkofer, contributing photographer)

A homeless man bundles up against the cold while waiting for a bus to take him to a hotel in Anaheim. (Bill Alkofer, contributing photographer)

Laura Kasten receives a food voucher as she boards a bus Monday to a motel in Anaheim. (Bill Alkofer, contributing photographer)

U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, presiding over a lawsuit filed Jan. 29 to stop the county from dismantling the camps, had said he would pay another visit to the riverbed Tuesday morning when he is expected to decide whether or not to lift a temporary restraining order that had stopped the county from clearing homeless people from a more than two-mile stretch of the flood control channel.

Last week, Carter brokered a relocation plan that he insisted be “humane” in handling what has been estimated at anywhere from 500 to 1,000 homeless people, many dug in at the riverbed for years. His oversight included taking a walking tour of the encampments.

The flurry of action to fulfill a county agreement to provide as many as 400 motel rooms paid for by vouchers has been complicated by the logistics of placing so many people into temporary housing in a matter of a few days. Also posing a challenge: the special needs of those with physical and mental disabilities or substance abuse issues, people who lack acceptable identification, and the difficulties of persuading motel owners to accommodate a population not used to living indoors or, in some cases, following rules.

One homeless person relocated over the weekend was kicked out of a motel for complaints about noise. Four others were in the process of being evicted from their rooms until Health Care Agency workers intervened and were able to reach a resolution with motel operators that allowed the homeless people to stay, said county spokeswoman Jennifer Nentwig.

“The Health Care Agency is working actively and closely with motel management to address issues as they arise in order to avoid motel evictions,” Nentwig said Monday.

The county has been joined in finding appropriate motel space by lawyers for the seven homeless plaintiffs and advocates monitoring the eviction.

The county has said it needs to remove the homeless population in the encampments that stretch a mile in either direction of Angel Stadium to conduct a maintenance project and hazardous waste cleanup. County public works posted eviction notices Jan. 22. Some people already had departed when Carter put a freeze on enforcement Feb. 6 by granting the temporary restraining order; a few have returned to the riverbed hoping to get motel rooms.

As county officials have hustled to locate motels rooms and move riverbed dwellers into lodgings, lawyers for another group of homeless people suing the county have voiced concerns about the county’s efforts.

The Legal Aid Society, which is suing the county on behalf of seven disabled riverbed inhabitants in a second lawsuit relating to the attempted encampment eviction, has said the county is moving homeless people to unsanitary, potentially dangerous motels that are located far from the services they require.

In a court brief filed Saturday, Legal Aid Society lawyers wrote that two homeless plaintiffs were offered a motel room in Buena Park that had bedbugs, a rodent infestation and Yelp reviews suggesting “a reputation for harboring illicit activity.” The county linked another homeless man to a Brea motel, even though the location would cause the man to be “unable to access the resources he relies on to survive, including medical resources,” according to the brief.

In their own court document filed Saturday night, the county’s lawyers asked for more time in placing people who have been homeless for years into the stopgap housing at local motels until the county creates more shelter beds and other accommodations.

“We are asking the Court to consider the short time table imposed by the Court on the County, which is to transition almost 300 individuals, who have been chronically homeless, immediately into housing without even a preliminary assessment as to the appropriate motel choice placement for that individual,” the court document states. “This was never the County’s plan, even before this litigation.”