The place does the buck cease on homelessness in California?
Good luck answering that.
Duty for constructing, sheltering and treating the Golden State’s 187,000 homeless is as elusive as leprechaun gold.
Californians, throughout political events and geographies, assist insurance policies to assist the state’s homeless. And so they have voted accordingly, green-lighting by way of state and native poll measures billions of {dollars} for extra drug therapy, psychological well being providers, short-term shelters and long-term housing.
Right here’s the rub:
Whereas Californians may agree they need options, town, county and state leaders who signify them don’t agree on how — nor who’s answerable for the wanted social providers and housing.
Tackling homelessness has pit California towards itself.
Mayors blame different mayors, who blame county supervisors, who blame mayors and the governor, who, in flip, blames mayors and supervisors.
The finger-pointing establishment has turn out to be a politically secure homeostasis absolving all of them of direct accountability.
A part of the issue is that cities and counties can not reliably tackle homelessness when the state has chosen a one-year-at-a-time strategy to funding.
That should change. They want long-term monetary readability.
Thus far, the governor has primarily issued pointers to native governments which have failed to supply the outcomes he desires or Californians are demanding. During the last 4 years, audits have proven that cities’ and counties’ palms usually are not clear. As a lot as native governments prefer to blame the state for his or her issues, they’ve flouted its pointers, obscured their information and mismanaged billions in funds earmarked for the homeless.
Mistaken identification
In some methods, California’s picture because the nationwide poster little one of homelessness is overblown. California has extra homeless than different states as a result of as a result of it has extra individuals than different states. On a per-capita foundation, it doesn’t have essentially the most homeless. It’s fifth. In actual fact, California’s fee is about 40% decrease than Hawaii’s and New York’s.
And importantly, California’s efforts to arrest the expansion of homelessness have proven some success. Final 12 months, when the unsheltered homeless inhabitants grew by 6.9% nationally, it principally flat-lined in California, rising solely 0.4%.
However California is a great distance from patting itself on the again. The state remains to be house to 24% of the nation’s homeless and virtually half its unsheltered. It might and should do higher.
Greater than something, the shortage of coordination amongst cities, counties and the state is inhibiting progress regardless of how a lot taxpayer cash is thrown on the drawback.
Up and down California, native governments are implementing their homeless insurance policies haphazardly and in isolation, pushing individuals out of their cities — and straight into their neighbors’.
After Oakland and San Francisco elevated their enforcement of no tenting legal guidelines final 12 months, Antioch reported that its unsheltered inhabitants rose 24%.
“Don’t push people into our communities and expect us to be the dumpsite for all your problems,” mentioned then-Antioch Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe. “That’s not fair and that’s not right.”
Helter skelter
Within the South Bay, the identical lack of coordination has created conflicts.
An encampment in North San Jose grew considerably after neighboring Milpitas and Fremont cracked down on tenting on public property. The pattern angered San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who, in April, threatened authorized motion towards cities deliberately pushing their unhoused inhabitants into his metropolis.
“If we find evidence of coordinated displacement or dereliction of duty, the next step could include seeking injunctive relief or recovering costs tied to housing and cleanup,” mentioned Mahan.
Past San Jose’s conflicts with neighboring cities, it’s additionally feuding with Santa Clara County.
Rigidity not too long ago spiked as Mahan sparred with metropolis councilmembers and county supervisors over his proposal to arrest homeless residents for trespassing in the event that they refuse obtainable shelter.
San Jose leaders, going through rising constituent strain to wash their streets, need the county — historically targeted on offering well being providers — to bear a much bigger share of the price of constructing shelter.
“We have a feckless county that has been derelict in its duty,” mentioned Councilmember George Casey. “Most people don’t know who their county supervisor is or what the county is responsible for, and we’re the ones who catch hell.”
And the way did the county reply to town?
Predictably.
“We need to build more housing,” wrote Santa Clara County Government James Williams, “and that core responsibility falls to our cities.”
So spherical and spherical it goes. The place accountability lies, nobody is aware of.
