The Real OC.

Just a few realities that we as a community talked about last weekend...

10.6% of those living in Orange County live below the poverty line - approximately 315,000 people.

There are 456,000 people at risk of missing meals each month in Orange County.

According to the Orange County Homeless Assessment, there were approximately 34,000 homeless people in Orange County in 2005.

74,000 children in Orange County receive emergency food assistance each year from Second Harvest Food Bank.

In Orange County alone, one person is diagnosed with AIDS every day and countless others are infected with the HIV virus.

An estimated 66% of all people living with HIV and AIDS in Orange County are not receiving medical attention.

Experts believe that there are more than 1,200 people in Orange County who are HIV positive and have no idea.

Perhaps all is not as it seems.

The questions we have been wrestling with lately are these - Do we see what is going on around us? Do we hear the invitation? I once heard someone say that there are no God-forsaken places, only Church-forsaken places. I wonder what would happen if the Church embraced the invitation to embody the life and teachings of Jesus. I wonder.

Can we not stand on the side of the poor and marginalized and still call ourselves the Church?

Comments

[Friar_Tuck]

Another interesting thing is where the poverty is....is it located in more North Country or South County?? What are the racial demographics of the poverty that exists?

I think the answers may be obvious in some ways, but it would be interesting to see how things are distrubuted.

[Stephanie]

those numbers shock me...thanks for educating us all about this. i never would have known. it would be awesome to see the church go beyond the boundaries of the wall and actually live as the church outside in its own neighborhood.

[emma]

Maybe that's what it means for 'him who has ears to hear, hear'? Being willing to be interrupted from our day-to-day routines and awakened to the heartbreak and pain that surrounds us... even in somewhere world-renowned like Orange County. Thanks for the reminder.

[Mike]

Clint... great question. I haven't seen any breakdown on the demographics for poverty in Orange County, but I do know a little bit more about the AIDS demographics, though.

Through my conversations with Ty, the areas ASFOC serves with the largest HIV/AIDS concentration are Santa Ana, Irvine, and Laguna [not in any particular order]. They believe this is because most of the community support and services are located in those areas.

Also, here's are some additional insights from ASFOC:

5,970 Orange County residents with AIDS have been reported to the CDC since the time of the County’s first case report in 1981 through December 31, 2001. The first cases of AIDS identified in Orange County were two men who were contacts of Patient Zero. Of the 5,970 cases of Orange County AIDS diagnoses…

99.3% are adults/adolescents (5,931)
91.0% are male (5,459)
75.5% are men who have sex with men (4,508)
(This includes men who may not classify themselves as “gay” or “homosexual.” This number is based solely on sexual activity.)
66.5% are White (3,973)
25.7% are Latino (1,535)
11.2% are injection-drug users (667)
9.0% are female (511)
5.3% are infected through high-risk heterosexual contact (319)
4.9% are African-American (290)
1.9% are Asian/Pacific Islander (111)
1.0% are Other / Unknown Ethnicities (61)
0.7% are pediatric cases (39)

[taken from http://ocasf.org/hiv_statistics.htm]

[Stephen]

Nice job Mike. I'm bummed that I had to jet right after worship. This is the kind of stuff that just kind of stops you in your tracks and begs you to take a second look at your perception of the way things are. Isn't it so easy to forget about these kinds of things and maybe even especialy here where you just don't see it. While I was in San Francisco the homeless issue is very easy to see. It's all around you and it has to impossible not to see a homeless person every block if not more. Even living in Portland for so many years it was easy to see. I guess that maybe doesn't change anything though because even with it staring me in the face I didn't do anything. I guess here I just feel better about myself because I didn't see the guy that needed food or clothes. hmm.......