THIRD WORLD U$A

Storms expose failures of California's homelessness programs


Tom Elias
Mon, January 16, 2023 

The spate of heavy rainstorms that swept across California during the early weeks of January exposed a lot of problems: weak bridges, inadequate reservoir capacity, poor drainage on many city streets and helplessness in the face of inevitable mudslides, to name just a few.

But the rains revealed nothing more starkly than the failure so far of California’s many programs to help most of the homeless, a failure that exposed how useless has been the bulk of the $11 billion-plus allocated for homeless aid over the last year.

One video, shot in the stormy early morning hours of Jan. 5, says a lot about this. You can see it on YouTube. The tape shows homeless individuals huddled in sleeping bags with water lapping at them. It shows people huddled under soaked blankets and in barely covered alcoves leading to building entrances. Most of all, it shows that in one city with a budget of tens of millions for “homeless services,” no one served the unhoused when they needed it most. The official death toll among California’s more than 172,000 homeless was just two, both felled by branches the storm knocked off trees and into their tents.

No one knows how many more might perish from aftereffects of extreme exposure to cold and wet. Many Californians write off the state’s homeless as some kind of human detritus because many are mentally ill or suffer post-traumatic stress disorder and are often not very functional. No matter, no one deserves the misery inflicted on the homeless this winter.

Some of California’s most prominent and powerful politicians often say they recognize this. New Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, whose city contains more than 56,000 homeless, declared a state of emergency over their situation on her first day in office last month. She wants to humanely eliminate some tent cities, but so far has moved only a few dozen persons indoors. Gov. Gavin Newsom put more than $10 billion for homeless services into the current state budget and billions more into his next planned budget. California has more homeless today than when the 2022-23 budget passed, and far fewer shelter beds than before the coronavirus pandemic.

One thing you can safely bet: No executive heading any of the more than 50 state and local government programs for which big money is ticketed slept in the rain Jan. 5.

One state report indicates this year’s $10 billion allocation is a pittance beside what it will cost to house all the currently homeless. That assessment held it will take more than 30 times as much, or $300 billion

This sum could house many thousands, but there is no sign even that much money can end the problem. At today’s reported average cost of $830,000-plus per one-bedroom apartment, it would pay for less than 3,600 new one-bedroom units, far from enough to permanently shelter even most of today’s homeless.

Yet, use of hotels and motels bought up by state and local governments as both temporary and permanent quarters for the unhoused did not solve the problem.

Here’s an idea not yet in the anti-homelessness portfolio: Use part of the huge government allocations to buy or lease some of the hundreds of millions of square feet of vacant office and commercial space that now dogs many California property owners, the result of changes in working conditions for white collar workers. Studies indicate about one-third of them will likely operate permanently from their homes.

So far, California has seen only about 11,000 conversions to residential units permitted out of that vast space, makeovers state law now says can go forward without zoning changes. How about using some of the billions allocated to homelessness for this? It would allow far more units and take much less time than new construction.

Just as it’s time for a complete rethink of the overall housing crisis, where state officials announce new and different need estimates every few months, it’s also time for this kind of fresh thinking about housing the homeless.

For while no one knows when or where the next big chain of storms may strike hardest, it’s impossible to overstate the misery they will cause if California continues hosting as many unhoused individuals as it now does.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Storms expose failures of California's homelessness programs

More cities and states make homeless encampments a crime, leaving low-income people with few options

Claire Thornton, USA TODAY
Mon, January 16, 2023

As the number of people experiencing homelessness increases across the country, more cities and states have passed laws making it illegal to live out of tents and cars or sleep in public spaces.

More than 100 jurisdictions have had such bans on the books for years, according to the National Homelessness Law Center. In recent months, high-profile measures have been approved targeting homelessness in many western U.S. cities and across entire states.

Federal data shows 582,462 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2022. Experts warn more people will enter homelessness as housing costs increase, as has been the case for decades in cities such as New York and in much of California.

If visible, unsheltered homelessness continues to grow, city leaders will have an easier time passing measures advocates say criminalize basic needs such as sleep and sheltering oneself, Eric Tars, legal director for the National Homelessness Law Center, told USA TODAY.

"The danger is that the worse the housing situation gets, the more people we see on the streets, the more will be the push for these punitive policies," Tars said.

A woman pushes a cart past a tent along the sidewalk on Dec. 20, 2022, in Salt Lake City.

These states and cities have passed laws making it illegal to live in tents or sleep on public property:

Missouri bans sleeping in parks

On Jan. 1, a statewide ban on sleeping on state-owned land took effect in Missouri, making it a misdemeanor to sleep in public spaces such as parks or under bridges.

Experts say Missouri's law is concerning because it covers the state and adds pressure on top of municipal bans.

It's wrong to assume people experiencing homelessness can just leave and go to another state, Tars said.

People have an "assumption" that "homeless people are infinitely mobile and they’ll go somewhere else," Tars said. "But most people, contrary to this notion of vagrancy and transience, are homeless in the community where they were once housed."

Missouri's law also restricts state funding for permanent housing, a model taken from template legislation created by the conservative Cicero Institute, according to Stateline, the Pew Charitable Trusts news service.

"To take funding away from housing that has the appropriate resources attached to it is devastating, problematic and perpetuates the issue of homelessness," said Kathy Connors, executive director of Gateway180 shelter in St. Louis. She added that people experiencing homelessness who are displaced from rural areas are forced to seek temporary services available only in cities, which is straining the system.

Gabe DeBay, Medical Services Officer with the Shoreline Fire Department, checks the blood pressure of a homeless man at a tent encampment during the hottest part of the day on July 26, 2022, in Shoreline, Washington. The Pacific Northwest is experiencing a heat wave with potentially record-breaking temperatures, which is expected to last for the rest of the week.

Tennessee makes it a felony to live in a tent

In July, Tennessee became the first state to make it a felony to live in a tent or sleep on state land.

Statewide bans have been introduced in recent years by legislators in five other states, Pew says.

"Policies like this are making homelessness worse," Tars said, because arrest, jail time and a criminal record put up steep barriers to employment, securing an apartment and accessing social services.

Portland, Oregon, bans tent living

The City Council in Portland, Oregon, voted in November to approve a plan to ban living in tents and will shift people living in encampments into six city-sanctioned mass encampment sites capped at 250 people.

The measure includes plans to build 20,000 additional affordable housing units and eventually would require everyone living on the streets to move into shelters, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon sent the Portland City Council a letter warning the new measure could be unlawful. Last month, the civil rights group sued the city of Phoenix over a similar ban, resulting in a temporary block from a federal judge.

Oregon's recently elected Gov. Tina Kotek started her term this week by declaring a state of emergency for parts of the state that have seen huge increases in unsheltered homelessness, including Portland.

Paskal Pawlicki from My Friends House Foundation, hands a bottle of water to a homeless man in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022.

Washoe County, Nevada, considers bans

In December, Washoe County Commissioners in Nevada voted 3-2 to consider an ordinance to ban camping in tents or vehicles and storing personal items in public when it poses "significant harm to any person, or public area." Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor or a $500 fine. Within the county, Reno and Sparks already had similar ordinances in place.

In 2021, 25% of young people experiencing homelessness served by the Eddy House shelter in Reno lived on the streets, CEO Trevor Macaluso told USA TODAY. He added that people displaced by sweeps in Reno and Sparks usually relocate their encampment somewhere else in the city, which makes the bans ineffective.
Los Angeles bans some homeless tent cities

A City Council-approved ban on tent living in certain areas was expanded in August 2022 to prohibit encampments within 500 feet of schools and day care centers after teachers and parents complained students couldn't access nearby sidewalks.

School administrators have said the ban isn't always enforced by the city and police, according to EdSource, an outlet covering education in California.

More recently, the mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach and Los Angeles County declared states of emergency over the homeless crisis aimed at speeding up services to reduce and prevent homelessness.