March 26, 2017
The mayor proposed a plan to deal with the homeless crisis (not homelessness crisis) that did not include any homeless input.
Here is the communities input. Please share to the city council and mayor. I am unable to do so from this page.
First They Came for the Homeless Response to the
“Pathways Project To Address
the Homeless Crisis in Berkeley.”
First They Came for the Homeless agrees that, in the absence of available, permanent supportive housing for Berkeley’s homeless, the concept of providing respite from the streets – a period of stability in a sheltered, if Spartan, environment, giving individuals a chance to get back on their feet – is something that we can support.
We disagree on some of the details, we have additional suggestions, and would also like to make a few comments about the long-term plan.
First things first, we suggest that this passage in the introduction be rephrased:
“…this crisis also impacts community enjoyment of streets, sidewalks, parks, commercial areas and neighborhoods, especially in locations with significant concentrations of homeless individuals.”
Would Berkeley be a better utopia if the homeless were equidistantly spaced from each other? Are the homeless, as a special class, not allowed to enjoy commercial areas? And are we not part of the community? We are not where you see us because we want to reduce the enjoyment level of those who have a place to call their own. Again, we remind those who will listen: we have nowhere to go.
Details.
The final proposal does not include any reference to how many people would be housed per unit, nor how people would be chosen to live together. This is a modification of the original concept, which suggested that eight to ten people might occupy what appeared to be a single, large room.
We strongly believe that meaningful stability and respite require privacy and the choice of those who one lives with in intimate quarters. Based on our experience, we do not believe that people will voluntarily move into a housing situation in which they cannot choose who they live with, or one with no privacy, or move into an environment where, in aggregate, the housing is too dense. Do not create space where it feels that people are being stored and processed rather than helped.
We are adamant that fencing around any such facilities is not acceptable: first, because it shuts the homeless off, away from the community, symbolically and psychologically; second, because we know, again from our experience, that most homeless on the streets will perceive a fenced-in area as an attempt to herd and manage people, rather than as security. We believe that while security is important
· the most important security comes from the community;
· those charged with security should be hired from the homeless community itself; and
· a guard shack is symbolically inappropriate – a welcome area is a much more reasonable structure and concept.
We are very concerned about the length of time suggested for respite. Again, our experience tells us that the time people need to recover, and just as importantly, the time it takes to deal with all the red tape various government entities make one go through to access support and benefits, is often significantly longer than the one to two month period being suggested for stays in the STAIR center. While we understand that there is a tradeoff between the number of people the STAIR center can try to help in a given span of time versus how long each one can stay, we strongly recommend a more flexible approach, both at the STAIR center and with the BRIDGE housing.
Finally, our most vehement objection is to the idea of coercing people into these facilities. We strongly suspect that the “intense outreach” the project speaks of, involving many weeks of interaction with homeless people still on the street, is overkill: it will not be necessary should the facilities be favorably viewed. If STAIRS is to be successful, people must want to come. They will want to come en masse if the first people invited – not forced – to take up residence there report that they are treated well and with respect. Insofar as there are a thousand or more homeless people in Berkeley and these facilities will be able to handle far less than that number, coercion should not be necessary and makes no sense – beyond being oppressive, if coercion is needed to attract people to the facilities they will fail.
Which brings us to the issue of releasing people back onto the streets.
Additional Suggestions.
We recognize the unfortunate reality that permanent supportive housing is in extremely short supply and that situation is not likely to be remedied in the near term. We urge you to create as much low-cost housing for homeless residents in the form of stackable, modular units, Tiny Homes, subsidized ADUs, units in proposed developments reserved for the lowest income and zero-income, and via similar concepts, as fast as can possibly be made to happen.
But if it comes to pass that people must be turned out, put back onto the streets as the project proposal discusses, we cannot imagine putting them back into the very situation they came out of, with the likely loss of much that has been gained via respite. To subject people again to police harassment and confiscation of possessions would be doubly cruel. Perhaps this could be prevented by giving those sent back to the streets from STAIRS and BRIDGE a “Do Not Harass This Person or Confiscate This Person’s Possessions – by Order of the Mayor” badge, but we think we have a better idea.
We have advocated ad naseum for sanctioned encampments. We continue to believe these are a far better approach for those who have no choice but the streets than bushes, benches and doorways. Now we have an existence proof that a quasi-sanctioned encampment of limited size, operating within the scope of rules we have proposed to you in the past, can work and is working. (For a more detailed account, with examples of people we have helped, please read Stability First: A Community Of Tents and Tables; Chairs, Coffee and Camaraderie. https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/03/22/18797620.php)
The site at HERE/THERE has existed for almost three months without incident. It has provided shelter, security, stability and privacy to some twenty-five people. Some of its denizens have “graduated” or are about to “graduate” – finding jobs and/or arranging to be reunited with family. Many people have asked to be part of our community but with its limited size we can only accept people as others leave.
If we continue to be stable, we will see more successes (and, to be sure, there will be inevitably be a few problems – we are not mental health professionals or drug therapists – we recognize that). We would be in even better shape, mentally, physically and psychologically, if we could have the simple amenities of a porta-potty or two (if you found yourself at the HERE sign at 3:00 AM and suddenly had to go to the bathroom, where would you go?) and trash pickup.
We suggest that similar sites set up at various locations in Berkeley – perhaps one per Council district? – could serve as destinations for people leaving STAIRS/BRIDGE. This would provide graduates with continued stability and a known location and as such would allow mental, social and red-tape-dealing assistance to continue for these individuals far more easily. The sites would also help stabilize the many other Berkeley homeless who would populate them, providing to them as well the significant benefits of sanctioned encampments we have enumerated in previous discussions.
We believe that some of us currently living at HERE/THERE have the experience now to aid in the creation of additional sites, and we are willing to help the City of Berkeley in this endeavor if you are willing to allow us to do so.
Long Term Measures
We applaud the goal of creating a thousand spaces for Berkeley’s thousand unhoused individuals. Indeed, if half of California’s cities achieved half that many units (in proportion to their population) there would be no more homelessness in California.
What we are concerned about is the vagueness of both the plan and the timeline. It touches on all the bases, but provides little direction to the staff who must develop it. E.g.
“The Plan will address long term housing opportunities and identify service needs and gaps, including but not limited to healthcare, mental health and substance abuse, and pathways to work.”
We think more concrete goals would be helpful, and we still believe in ‘housing first.’ Creating long term housing opportunities is therefore paramount, but creating a thousand units will be a daunting exercise if not broken out into smaller, achievable steps. Such a plan might look something like
· 2017 – Develop legislation that will open up pathways to additional affordable housing, traditional and non-traditional.
· 2018 – Create and populate 100 units, while acquiring real estate for further expansion.
· 2019 – Create and populate an additional 200 units.
· 2020 – Create and populate 300 units, based on the successes and failures of previous years.
· 2021 – Create and populate 400 units.
Thank you for your consideration, and for making the crisis of homelessness a priority for the City of Berkeley.
