Citing a dramatic decline in homelessness on its streets, Newport Beach has found a new city to partner with on shelter bed space.
As Newport Beach’s amended agreement with the Costa Mesa Bridge Shelter winds down, the city is shifting its resources to the Huntington Beach Navigation Center, where it will rent 10 shelter beds next month.
The Newport Beach City Council hailed the new partnership during its meeting on Tuesday as a cost-savings measure — one that shows how far the city has come on homelessness.
“We’ve had a very good relationship with Costa Mesa,” said Councilmember Robyn Grant. “But now we have the opportunity to right-size our shelter. This opportunity that staff has pursued to create [a] new relationship with Huntington Beach is a huge savings to our city.”
Grant said homelessness on Newport Beach’s streets has declined 90%.
According to Orange County’s most recent biennial Point in Time count, unsheltered homeless people living in Newport Beach dropped from 71 in 2024 to just eight this year. Volunteers counted 15 sheltered homeless people, as well.
Newport Beach — like many other O.C. cities — beefed up its anti-camping laws two years ago.
Councilmembers at the time expanded the legal definition of “camping” to include people sleeping overnight in their cars, and made it illegal to store personal belonging unattended on public property.
Newport Beach touted those anti-camping revamps as a chief reason why it wanted to revise its partnership with Costa Mesa last year and only negotiate a one-year extension with bed space commitments ending after six months.
In doing so, the city has whittled down its shelter bed access from 25 to 20. After June 30, Newport Beach will release access to all of its remaining beds.
With that contract term expiring soon, a new agreement with the Huntington Beach Navigation Center would give the city access to 10 shelter beds and a part-time social worker. Newport Beach would also be terminating its contract with People Assisting the Homeless, its current social services provider.
Including overhead fees, city officials estimated the agreement to cost $44,100 a month, in addition to a one-time $9,000 vehicle conversion.
Grant touted $1 million in annual savings by partnering with the navigation center.
On June 16, the Huntington Beach City Council approved the agreement for a one-year term starting next month. Should Newport Beach need access to more shelter beds than its allotment, the per diem rate will be $132 per night, which is about $30 less than the Bridges Shelter rate.
Mayor Pro Tem Noah Blom credited the work of his council colleagues, especially Mayor Lauren Kleiman, on homelessness before the contract was unanimously passed.
“We know this is never an easy subject to tackle,” he said. “Sometimes it’s difficult to understand why we adjust something, why we change something that from the outset looks like it’s working, but the reality is we want it to work better, and the relationship we have with Huntington [Beach], especially right now, has been amazing.”
