Zavala and the BuzzBall girls say OC is turning into LA. Here's what the counts show

Popular IRL streamer Zavala and the BuzzBall girls say Orange County is starting to feel a lot like Los Angeles, and not in a good way. In a stream clip Juice Unlocked posted Sept. 8, 2026, the group is riding in a car when they realize they are in OC and agree the county is getting "ghetto."

"I feel like OC's getting ghetto," one of them says. "Like, I feel like it's on par now with LA." Another voice answers that they are "low key" right.

The debate

Juice Unlocked asked followers whether OC is really changing. The post drew more than 1,800 likes and more than 500 comments.

The post framed the question with a split-screen graphic: a sunny OC harbor on one side and a tent encampment under the downtown LA skyline on the other.

“I feel like OC's getting ghetto.”

What the counts show

The streamers did not say what they meant by "ghetto." But if the comparison is about homelessness, as the graphic suggests, the most recent official numbers point the other way. Orange County's 2026 Point in Time Count, released May 18, 2026, found 6,321 people experiencing homelessness, down 13.7% from 2024, according to the County of Orange.

Unsheltered homelessness in OC fell about 27%, to 3,065 people, the county said. For the first time, more homeless residents were in shelters than on the streets.

That followed a rough stretch. The 2024 count found 7,322 people, a 28% jump from 2022, ABC7 reported at the time.

Los Angeles County is on a different scale. Its 2026 count, released July 24, estimated 73,040 homeless people countywide, up 1.2% from 2025, LAist reported. That is more than 11 times OC's total. In the city of Los Angeles, the unsheltered population rose 7.9% after two years of declines, though LAist noted the city and county increases fell within the count's margin of error.

The counts are once-a-year snapshots. They also do not measure what the streamers were talking about: how a place feels from the back seat.

“Like, I feel like it's on par now with LA.”

“Oh my god, I forgot that we're in OC.”