Governor Newsom Says No More Excuses on Homelessness
California Governor Gavin Newsom has upset a lot of people today with a flat-out rejection of every homeless action plan in the state. Grant monies totaling $600 million to be divided among 75 governments and service providers aren’t going anywhere until he determines that they’re going to have the intended impact.
I don’t know if he really “gets” it when it comes to understanding the underlying issues behind how and why so many people are unhoused, but he’s making his dissatisfaction with the status quo known.
Here’s a quote from Anita Chabria’s column in the Los Angeles Times:
“We’re demoralized by our own lack of performance,” he told me Wednesday from the top floor of his office in Sacramento, overlooking a city as overrun with tents and despair as any in California.
“We’re at a point of moral crisis and a crisis of confidence in our leadership, as Democrats, as progressives,” he said. “Walk in any community in the state and tell me where we’re at the level we need to be.”
Infighting and NIMBYism are responsible for driving localities to submit plans with the least political resistance. The paths to action proposed with the current asks for funding would have the net effect of reducing the number of people living on the streets in California by only about 2,000.
We currently have more than 160,000 homeless people; about 70% of whom are outside and things are getting worse. Two more people are ending up unsheltered for each one making it off the streets with the programs in place.
Over the past year, according to San Diego’s Regional Task Force on Homelessness, 13 people have accessed homeless services for the first time for every 10 formerly homeless residents who were housed. The boat is leaking water faster than we can bail it out.
Back to the LA Times:
Newsom is sending an unexpected but clear message that the relationship between the state and local entities is about to change when it comes to homelessness. He seems genuinely willing to jump onto that third rail of politics, local control — similar to what the administration has done in cracking down on places that refuse to build their fair share of affordable housing. In that instance, the state is no longer rubber-stamping plans for state-mandated housing goals, but enforcing its rules and increasing goals.
Outside of the point-in-time census conducted annually, communication between all the entities who might have relevant information –especially that which would prevent homelessness in the first place– is lacking.
The San Diego County Supervisors have asked the nine agencies under their control to work with the Chief Administrative Officer to create a system of sharing data that also protects individual privacy. The upshot of this would be a 2023 Homeless Prevention Program that actually works.
The City of El Cajon is a primo example of failure to address the problem. Mayor Bill Wells, who’s running for re-election, has sent police to harass people in motels paid by voucher to provide temporary shelter. For him, the homeless humans, regardless of shelter or not, are a source of crime and need to be run out of town. He’s even ignored offers for additional police funding.
The City of San Diego, which by virtue of its vast area and concentration of services has the most obvious issues with street encampments, is caught up in a cycle of police sweeps sending them to shelter beds that are not available.
Homeless people are spit back out on the streets by emergency rooms that are already over-stressed. They and/or their fellow homeless will be back to the ER soon as living on the street is bad for physical and emotional health.
It’s a cruel policy dressed with the hopeful speeches about the availability of services that are already overwhelmed. As awful as it may seem, current practices are reflective of a political reality of a substantial portion of the population wanting instant solutions and a police department kept happy with overtime hours for its personnel.
If you ever wanted to see open rebellion on the streets of San Diego, imagine what would happen if the city gave up playing whack-a-mole with encampments. The mayor, who gets plenty of grief for being slippery when cornered over current practices, would be tarred and feathered, with many of our city’s finest liberals leading the mob.
One of the dirty little secrets about public attitudes toward our homeless population is that the “ultimate solution” would involve mass incarceration. When Not In My Neighborhood runs out of neighborhoods rejecting solutions, there will be popular support for such oppressive measures.
Presently a large part of the public –spoon-fed misinformation by reactionaries– seems to think that mental health and addiction services are the best way to address the unseemly sight of humans just trying to exist. The fact is that the entire population needs access to these sorts of services, which are hard to find and generally not covered (or subcontracted out to pill mills) by health insurance.
Governor Newsom’s punishment for localities not doing squat holds little short-term liability for him. He’s going to be re-elected by a large margin, and many people who might be upset with the potential loss of control for localities have already voted.
Long term, however, all the state and local politicians are facing the same problem, namely that the pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow is going to be exhausted. Structural changes made now in housing policy and creative financial planning offer some hope.
San Diego Unified School District’s current bond proposal (Measure U) includes funding to build housing for 500 lower wage district employees at the site currently occupied by its headquarters (which is moving to Kearny Mesa). Rents would be limited to 30% of income.
From CBS8 News:
Here in San Diego, if Measure U passes, San Diegans would not see their taxes increase, because its adoption would coincide with a past bond measure's expiration.
"So whatever you're paying now in property taxes to support our schools is what you will continue to do," Barrera said.
If Measure U passes, construction on affordable housing units on the site of current district headquarters is expected to be completed within the next three years or so.
I can’t wait for the “good citizens” of University Heights to protest this idea. Like everything else proposed to address homelessness, it's got to be somebody else’s problem.
The Union-Tribune’s Michael Smolens had some good news amid the bad in a recent column, namely that prevention ideas (like the County’s) are gaining strength.
The Supes have approved a pilot rental assistance program for seniors (who make up a quarter of the homeless population), and the City has various pre-emptive services through its Housing Commission, including temporary rental assistance, help with security deposits and utility payments, and housing and employment advice.
But the long-term battle against homelessness will only be successful if core causes can be addressed. That was among many points in a Wednesday Union-Tribune commentary authored by Greg Anglea, CEO of Interfaith Community Services, and Elizabeth Fitzsimons, CEO of Episcopal Community Services.
Their major thrust was that all San Diegans can play a role in reducing homelessness. They cited the book “Homelessness is a Housing Problem” by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldren.
One of the book’s conclusions was, “In the U.S., the best predictor of a high rate of homelessness is high cost of housing combined with very low rental vacancy rates.”
That’s San Diego, and that needs to change.
“Core causes” of homelessness include the fact that lower wage jobs no longer pay enough for people to afford shelter. Another core cause has to do with misinformation that gets in the way of community action.
Many of the so-called facts bandied about about homeless humans simply aren’t true. People aren’t moving to San Diego to “enjoy” a homeless lifestyle. 43% of the homeless are without shelter for the first time in their lives. Only 1 in 10 people with addiction issues regardless of housing status ever get treatment.
Did you know that six months of living on the street is all but guaranteed to induce what we call mental illness? How about the fact that homeless people are much more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators of crime?
Who’s to blame? Employers? Landlords? How about all of the above? You see, not having a roof over your head shouldn’t be looked at as an individual’s problem, it should be looked at as a society wide problem, involving all of us. (Yes, some individuals screw up, but that’s not a core issue here.)
Unfortunately, seeing things through a broader lens has become increasingly difficult in a world dominated by self interest as a virtue.
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com