ABOUT ORANGE COUNTY

Orange County's Changing Landscape

Orange County has undergone a dramatic transformation since IHF was created. It has become one of the most urban, ethnically diverse, and economically stratified counties in the United States. Between 1990 and 2000, the county's population grew from 2.4 million to 2.8 million, making it the second most densely populated county in the state, and the fifth-largest county in the U.S.

Much of this growth took place in the county's largest cities. Santa Ana, the county's largest city, grew from a population of 293,743 in 1990 to 337,977 in 2000, a net increase of 44,235 residents. However, some experts believe that uncounted illegal immigrants bring Santa Ana's total closer to 500,000. Anaheim, the county's second largest city, grew by 61,608 residents during this period, from a population of 266,406 to 328,014. Irvine, Garden Grove, and Mission Viejo also saw large numeric increases in population.

Because the supply of housing has not kept pace with this growth, many low and middle income families have been crowded into small apartments with high rents. With 12,451 persons per square mile, Santa Ana was the most densely populated city in the county in 2000, and its average household of 4.6 people was greater than any U.S. city with a population over 50,000.

The county has also become increasingly divided geographically, with large numbers of less affluent Latinos and Asian immigrants concentrated in the central and northern portion of the county, and a mostly white, highly educated, and wealthy population living in coastal cities and new developments in the south.

All of the net growth in the county's population has occurred in communities of color. Much of this has been driven by immigration, mostly from Asia and Central America, increasing the county's proportion of foreign born from 6 percent in 1970 to 30 percent in 2000. In 2000, whites comprised 51.9 percent of the population, down from 64.6 percent in 1990. Latinos comprised 30.7 percent, up from 23.4 percent. Asians increased from 10.0 to 14.9 percent of the population over this period. Minorities now make up a majority of residents in Orange County.

In 1990, Santa Ana was the only Orange County city with a minority majority population. In 2000, ten cities had this distinction. The dramatic changes occurring are especially evident in the county's larger cities. Anaheim and Santa Ana have seen considerable declines in the number of whites offset by major increases in the number of Latinos. In Garden Grove, long considered to be a bastion for white Republicans, the substantial decrease in the number of white residents has been countered by dramatic rises in the Asian and Latino populations. The city now hosts a Korean Festival, a Tet Festival, and an Arab Festival. Irvine has also seen a substantial increase in its Asian population and other ethnic groups, with little change in the number of white residents. In 2000, Irvine's Asian and Pacific Islander population was second only to Garden Grove's in size.

Long considered to be a stronghold for the middle class, there are signs that Orange County is becoming a region of extremes, with the very rich and very poor clustered at opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum. During the 1990s the gap between the rich and the poor in Orange County widened while the number of residents in poverty grew 44 percent. Overall, Orange County's median family income declined 3.2 percent to $64,611 as statewide incomes rose 0.2 percent to $53,025.

Illustrative of the bottom end of the continuum is the county seat. According to a 2004 Rockefeller Institute of Government study, Santa Ana topped the list of the nation's 86 largest cities as having the highest level or urban hardship, a rating based on factors such as income, education, and housing conditions. The city's per capita income of $12,152 is less than half that of Orange County ($25,826) as a whole, and nearly 20 percent of its residents live below the federal poverty level. Santa Ana also has the highest percent of population over age 25 without a high-school education in the U.S. (56 percent).

The county is also faced with some troublesome trends in health and social services. The Orange County Community Indicators Project found that while the number of mothers receiving prenatal care and child immunizations has been improving, the rate of child poverty, obesity, and asthma has been worsening. The Orange County Health Needs Assessment reports that while the county's rate of uninsurance has fallen since 2001, the percentage of uninsured Latinos and Vietnamese has increased. And according to a UCLA Center for Health Policy Research analysis of the California Health Interview Survey data, only six California counties have a greater percentage of children who are uninsured than Orange County. What is more, the county's community clinics, which provide a safety net for the uninsured, are overloaded. Waits for routine appointments are at five to seven weeks, the COO of the Coalition of Orange County Community Clinics reported. The needs will likely become more acute and health and social service providers will likely be stretched further as the county increases in density with more immigrants from all parts of the world.

IHF's Response to Orange County's Changing Needs

IHF has taken a leadership role in ensuring that Orange County's health and social service community stays abreast of the aforementioned trends and is responsive to evolving community needs. This includes funding and active participation in collaborative efforts to identify unmet needs and gaps in health and human services by geography for Orange County, to identify healthcare use in the county's culturally diverse population, and to establish a comprehensive, countywide health needs assessment.

The Foundation has used findings from these and other efforts to prioritize the allocation of its resources, which is reflected in its grantmaking. During its first twenty years, IHF grants targeted Orange County's most vulnerable populations. Well over one-third of the grants focused on children and youth (38 percent), and close to one-fifth targeted the poor (23 percent) or the disabled (20 percent). Other intended beneficiaries included the homeless, ethnic/racial minorities, seniors, people with AIDS, substance abusers, victims of crime or abuse, women, and immigrants and refugees.

Of the grants that explicitly targeted ethnic/racial minorities (15 percent), nearly three-quarters made a special effort to reach Latinos (73 percent), and one-third targeted Asians and Pacific Islanders (33 percent). In line with the county's changing demographics, the number of IHF's grants with an explicit focus on reaching racial/ethnic minorities increased over time. Between 1987 and 1998, only five of 59 grants (9 percent) targeted racial ethnic minorities. Since that time, however, 10 of 41 grants (24 percent) have had an ethnic-specific focus.

Initially, the Foundation had a geographic focus on greater Irvine. Before long, however, IHF realized that many of the issues it was trying to solve transcended Irvine's borders and so it broadened to a more regional concentration and reached out to partners in neighboring communities. While the highest proportion of grants were awarded to organizations located in Irvine (38 percent) and Santa Ana (21 percent), close to two-thirds of the grants (65 percent), were intended to have an impact countywide.

Excerpted from evaluation report of IHF's first 20 years of grantmaking. Conducted for IHF by Harder+Company Community Research.