Disappointed to see Governor Gavin Newsom hard line on homelessness by ordering government agencies and agencies to clear out encampments on public lands, such as highway embankments, and encouraging local governments to do so.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles city and county leaders continue to work hard but effectively to reach people in the encampments and get them temporary and permanent housing, even if it takes weeks or months.
Last week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors also ruled out any attempt at homelessness crime. In a rebuke to Newsom’s leadership, it voted last week to reaffirm its position that no one should be arrested simply for camping outdoors.
Mayor Karen Bass’s Inside Safe program to temporarily relocate people from encampments to motel and hotel rooms has made a measurable difference in the number of homeless people on the streets. At last count, the number of homeless people in the city was down 10.4% and the number of people living in shelters was up 17.7%. And the availability of new, city-funded permanent housing units contributed to a 2.2% drop in the city’s unemployment rate.
Are street sweeps and law enforcement still pushing homeless people off the sidewalks? Of course. And this is worrying. But Bass has denounced arresting homeless people as a cop-out. San Francisco’s mayor is willing to use it as a tool.
London Mayor Breed decided to follow Newsom’s lead and commit “very angry” clearing out encampments where police refer people and moving them if they don’t accept an offer of shelter in place. This ignores the fact that there are 8,300 homeless people in San Francisco, but the city’s 3,600 shelter beds are nearly at capacity. Race followed order that outreach workers provide bus, train, or plane tickets out of town to homeless people (if they are connected to a destination) before providing any services like shelter. It seems the mayor is helping homeless people more than he wants to push them out in his re-election bid.
Simply put, nothing in San Francisco’s approach or the governor’s executive order will reduce homelessness, and Newsom should know better.
Like the same noted In his announcement last month, he allocated $24 billion in state funding to help cities and counties provide services and housing to homeless residents. He founded Project Roomkey, a program that cities and counties used to move vulnerable homeless people into vacant rooms in hotels and motels during the COVID-19 pandemic, using federal emergency relief funds. He started House key a program that funds the acquisition of housing for homeless people. And made $1.3 billion in federal funds available through the organization. Housing and Homeless Incentive Program encourage Medi-Cal providers to invest in local homeless programs.
Yet California has the highest number of homeless people in the country. If there are still homeless people here after spending billions on temporary and permanent housing, it’s because the problem is so large and intractable. Newsom’s order and Breed’s cleanup follow a recent Supreme Court decision that allowed Grants Pass, Oregon, to cite and arrest homeless people outside, even if there’s no shelter available. But these crackdowns only offer the illusion that homelessness can be solved in specific places by moving people around.
Housing is unaffordable, and adding affordable housing in cities like Los Angeles that protect single-family zoning and restrict where housing can be built is extremely difficult and expensive. Mass incarceration has left hundreds of homeless people in prisons and jails. Structural racism has made Black people a disproportionate percentage of the homeless population nationwide. Even 24% of homeless people say that He has a serious mental illness. or the 27% who report substance abuse, with rare exceptions, are very poor. Most of them cannot get the help they need unless they first get a home.
Homelessness is a stark example of wealth inequality in the country. It has been suggested that some Californians are tired of seeing it. They have “camp fatigue.” Well, no one is more tired than people living in camps.
The solution is obvious: focus on building, buying or renting more housing. Making people homeless is expensive and doesn’t happen overnight. Sometimes moving people indoors can take weeks. But it works.
Another thing that has worked: Medi-Cal providers fund services for homeless people. The county’s Homeless Initiative has received $114 million in funding from LA Care and Health Net to support the county’s main rental program, which provides housing for homeless people. There are also Medi-Cal health care providers. initiator to housing projects for low-income and homeless people, and we hope that this support will continue.
It’s encouraging that Los Angeles city and county leaders are realizing what Newsom and the San Francisco mayor have forgotten: Simply moving people off the sidewalk has never reduced homelessness, and it’s not working now.
