Pathways of Hope

Pathways of Hope leads a community effort to provide access to food, shelter, and housing to those experiencing hunger and homelessness in North Orange County.

Since 1975, Pathways of Hope has led a community-wide effort to rebuild the lives of those in North Orange County, CA experiencing hunger and homelessness. We offer a wide array of services—from emergency food distribution to eviction prevention to permanent supportive housing—which are critical to the wellbeing of our community as the cost of living in California continues to rise unrelentingly. In Orange County alone, 320,000 residents live below the poverty line, 2,600 of whom reside in local shelters while another 3,000 have no shelter whatsoever.

The need is immense in our community, but so is Pathways’ impact.

In 2023, we served over 45,000 individuals with 405,000 meals through our emergency food distribution services. We also ended homelessness for nearly 300 individuals through our permanent housing programs and prevented another 202 at-risk individuals from entering homelessness through our prevention and diversion services.

Essential to this success is our agency-wide culture of choice, collaboration, trust, and empowerment.

We use the Housing First ethos as guiding principles in program operations, ensuring eligibility isn’t conditional on sobriety, income, employment, immigration status, or any other circumstance that could create an unnecessary barrier between our clients and a housing opportunity.

Moreover, our staff represent the multitude of racial, ethnic, and cultural identities within our client base while leadership prioritizes the voice of lived experience in decision-making, enabling Pathways to adapt to the complex, highly nuanced needs of our community so that we continue to effect meaningful, sustainable change.

In 2023, we served over 45,000 individuals with 405,000 meals through our emergency food distribution services. We also ended homelessness for nearly 300 individuals through our permanent housing programs and prevented another 202 at-risk individuals from entering homelessness through our prevention and diversion services.

Orange County is currently contending with a hunger and housing crisis of staggering proportions. At the end of March, the COVID-19 emergency benefits for SNAP/CalFresh recipients were eliminated, resulting in a $500 million state-wide cut to food assistance that has impacted a quarter million low-income OC residents. Most have seen their benefits reduced by at least $100 per month, with some benefits dropping from $281 to as little as $23 per month.  

At the same time, we are witnessing a housing affordability crisis in which 320,000 Orange County residents live below the poverty line, 2,661 of whom reside in the emergency shelter system while another 3,057 have no shelter whatsoever. For a family of four to afford a 2-bedroom rental at the fair market rate of $2,331 per month, both adults need to earn upwards of $32 per hour—over twice the state’s minimum wage.  

North Orange County