Chattanooga cut the number of homeless in half in 2023, thanks largely to the Eviction Prevention Initiative, building permanent affordable housing, and providing help for those with addiction or mental challenges.
But homelessness remains endemic in varying degrees, especially in big cities and during economic downturns. Job losses and unaffordable housing, whether rented or owned, combined with political conflicts between the ultra-left wishing to provide housing in desirable locations, essentially unconditionally, and the ultra-right, determined to allow unbridled capitalism to dictate the price of housing. Both these extremes create a burgeoning crisis of unsanitary conditions, high crime, and an inhuman living environment.
In Los Angeles, the hourly minimum wage needed to afford the median rent is $47.52, according to United Way, which is a major factor in why homelessness increased 9 percent in L.A. County in 2023 to 75,518, with 53 percent experiencing this for the first time. "But for the first time in history, the city and county of L.A. have a comprehensive plan to end homelessness," it says.
Karen Bass, the mayor of the City of Los Angeles, announced in December 2023 that in her first year in office, nearly 22,000 un-housed Angelenos were moved off the streets of the city thanks to local, state, and federal efforts, including placing the homeless in hotels with available rooms. That figure is 28 percent better than in 2022, but a huge challenge remains, with the official homeless count for 2023 at 46,000.
The crisis came to a head in L.A. in part because of past cuts to programs for economic safety nets and the de-prioritizing of subsidized housing. In Nov. 2020, a report by California's auditor found that mismanagement was responsible for squandering most of a $2.7 billion in resources that were supposed to go to building affordable housing.
California legislation in 2016-2021 boosted the building of 26,000 affordable units, in part because of fewer bureaucratic barriers. The new laws also put a limit on rent increases, provided rent assistance, helped with rent applications, provided security deposits, prevented unjust no-fault evictions, and offered job training and child care. Just as important, teams of specialists have been able to offer help for those with mental health or addiction problems.
Almost every community in the U. S. now has residential programs to help anyone become sober, which can play a vital role in keeping individuals off the streets and able to keep jobs. A notable example is The Healing Place in Louisville, Ky., which has been described as "part boot camp, part penitentiary, part profane monastery" and whose results have been so impressive that the model has been adopted statewide.
Across the nation, local and state governments, nonprofit organizations, and community groups have had success addressing the root problems of those who are living on the street or residing in temporary shelters. Our position is that basic shelter should be the right of all Americans, without qualification requirements.
Local volunteers should be recruited to help provide services, as well as paid workers in a program similar to AmeriCorps VISTA, the national service program originated by President John F. Kennedy. In particular, social workers should be recruited because they have the skills to work with police as first responders, as well as the knowledge of mental illness and how to help people get jobs.
Anyone residing in shelters should also be encouraged to do paid work, with an exemption from minimum wage laws to keep costs low, making the programs more financially viable and helping individuals to get off the street. Financial support can also be solicited from nonprofits and businesses, as well as government programs like Medicare and Social Security.
Another approach has been taken in Kings County, Wa. (Seattle) with what was originally called the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, now known as Purpose Dignity Action and found in many other cities. The New York Times called it "a unique collaboration among businesses, neighborhood groups, the police, advocates, and nonprofits in fighting cynics and misperceptions driven by politics."
Co-Executive Director Lisa Daugaard says that rather than having police simply book people with behavioral problems into jail for low-level crimes like selling small amounts of drugs or prostitution, the individuals are assigned case managers to "provide crisis response, immediate psychosocial assessment, and holistic long-term treatment services."
Daugaard is a lawyer who received a MacArthur "genius" award in 2019 for getting officials to cooperate across previously siloed systems to address these issues. One of PDA's programs, JustCare, has qualified staff members be the first responders to complaints about homeless encampments, rather than police officers, first offering food, water, and clean needles to reduce fear and build trust. JustCare can go on to offer hotel rooms or other housing, since Kings County has a higher rate of the homeless who are unsheltered and the priority needs to be building more temporary options.
One size does not fit all in finding solutions. A 2023 study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that where most homeless are in temporary, emergency, or transitional housing, such as Philadelphia, the priority needs to build more permanent homes, and that city has had a 21 percent decline in the total who were homeless from its peak.
Houston, Texas, had one of the highest homeless populations in the nation in 2011, with 8,000 people without stable housing. Its Housing First program was aimed at preventing homelessness to begin with, while building permanent housing. It supported PadSplit, a company that offers furnished bedrooms in rooming houses and single-family homes, where residents share the kitchen and common rooms. The result of all of Houston's programs, which did not require those on the street or in shelters to fix their other problems first, was that its homeless population was cut in half. HUD has incentivized other communities to follow this approach.
A similar idea is to remove the often unnecessary rules that would help the placing or building of "tiny homes", advocated by, among others, Tesla's Elon Musk.
Likewise, Business Insider noted on Feb. 10, 2024 that "the main driver of homelessness is the severe housing shortage across the country, so the most fundamental solution is creating more affordable housing, which involves loosening zoning and other land-use and building regulations." It also observed that it was important to "create crisis response systems that don't involve the police, strengthening housing and employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated people."
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to soon rule on a case out of Grants Pass, Or., as to whether cities can ban public camping. A similar case, Martin v. Boise in the 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, resulted in the decision in 2018 that cities in its jurisdiction could not make this illegal if affordable housing is inadequate, but it was settled out of court in 2021.
Another prominent example of the housing challenge is the estimate by the Coalition on Homelessness of 7,000 sleeping on the streets in San Francisco, while 3,000 shelter beds are already occupied. In 2018, a referendum created $300 million for homelessness solutions, but unfortunately, the money was held up for a couple of years with court battles between center-left and center-right factions.
A comprehensive, but pragmatic, approach to addressing the variety of causes of homelessness is what all successful programs have to varying degrees. Too often, solutions to social problems are stymied because of groups that refuse any compromise to their proposed grandiose schemes. We need more leaders who have the courage to stand up to activists on all sides to bring people together who want to make progress, not try to achieve perfection.
What can you do to help prevent or solve homelessness? Talk to your leaders at Town Hall, etc. Your local groups would love to have you donate or volunteer.
Dr. Sean Subas
Scott S. Smith