{"id":28301,"date":"2023-09-07T13:36:03","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T20:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=28301"},"modified":"2023-09-07T13:36:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T20:36:05","slug":"can-we-be-honest-about-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/09\/07\/can-we-be-honest-about-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"CAN WE BE HONEST ABOUT HOMELESSNESS?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Randy Shaw<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0September 5, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\"photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

August 23 rally against SF’s federal homeless injunction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recovery Must Be Top Priority<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate about America\u2019s homeless crisis has gone off the rails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor London Breed and California Governor Gavin Newsom publicly condemned a misguided federal injunction<\/a> imposed on San Francisco. Political leaders rarely weigh in like that but most of their constituents likely agreed with them;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York City Mayor Adams announced support for suspending the city\u2019s longtime right to shelter law. His action was a response to the sudden arrival of thousands of migrants from other states;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Los Angeles Mayor Bass is doing everything in her power to address the city\u2019s homelessness crisis. But she is criticized for not doing better or doing more;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideology drives homeless policy debates more than ever.  Two specific beliefs stand out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.Many homeless advocates refuse to accept that the unhoused population has changed. Far more are either drug addicts and\/or have severe mental health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.Many critics of spending on homelessness wrongly claim that there is sufficient money to solve the crisis. Nonsense. Cities like San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles have neither the housing supply nor the available rent subsidies to end homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People\u2019s positions are deep seated. But I hope this piece causes rethinking about both of the above issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The Unhoused Population Has Changed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which I head, has housed homeless single adults in San Francisco since 1988. We are San Francisco\u2019s largest provider of permanent supportive housing for that population. I personally interviewed the first 100 or more placements. Most either had worked in warehouses or trucking and lost their jobs or were retired with too low an income to afford rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until Care Not Cash took effect in 2005  (Gavin Newsom\u2019s ballot measure to provide housing rather than a full cash grant to single adults on welfare) our housing program was strictly voluntary. That meant we were not  seeing those who preferred spending their public assistance check on drugs rather than rent. Most saw this group as a small subset of the unhoused population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a very different unhoused population today. And deadly fentanyl has changed the rules .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of those now moving into THC\u2019s permanent supportive housing units are drug addicts. The city does not require them to seek or obtain any recovery services. Services are available but completely voluntary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city used to house people after they had stayed in shelters. Now many enter hotels after years on the street. Many are not ready for housing. They make this clear by vandalizing common areas and bathrooms and disrupting other tenants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stories about permanent supportive housing SRO\u2019s blame nonprofit operators for vandalism, overdoses, and other building problems. They ignore that people come into the hotels incapable of effectively functioning in that environment. The media depicts every tenant, even those causing violence and vandalism, as a \u201cvictim\u201d of an uncaring hotel operator. Contrary facts are lied about<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Must Prioritize Recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how should San Francisco and other cities respond to the new unhoused population?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By prioritizing recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco taxpayers should not subsidize housing for drug addicts over those seeking recovery. Period. City funds should prioritize those eager to turn their lives around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city should make acceptance of services a condition of receiving subsidized rents in city funded buildings.  If you don\u2019t want services, fine, stay in a shelter. But you shouldn\u2019t get housed ahead of those seeking recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city\u2019s current permanent housing model is not sustainable. Our elected leaders need to prioritize recovery over the \u201cfreedom\u201d to use drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates for office in San Francisco\u2019s November 2024 should ask constituents who they think San Francisco\u2019s homeless dollars should be prioritizing. I bet residents of every district prefer targeting those eager to turn their lives around via recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Public Funding is Vastly Inadequate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some recovery advocates believe their own falsehood: that the obstacle to ending homelessness is in an alleged \u201cHomeless Industrial Complex\u201d where nonprofits get rich without providing services. No major West Coast city has the resources to make up for the failure of the federal government to provide the affordable housing and recovery funding necessary to end homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the truth:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUCH IF NOT MOST OF SAN FRANCISCO\u2019S HOMELESS BUDGET GOES TO RENT SUBSIDIES FOR THE ALREADY HOUSED. IT DOES NOT GO TO THE CURRENTLY UNHOUSED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you miss that? I\u2019ll say it again:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUCH IF NOT MOST OF SAN FRANCISCO\u2019S HOMELESS BUDGET GOES TO RENT SUBSIDIES FOR THE ALREADY HOUSED. IT DOES NOT GO TO THE CURRENTLY UNHOUSED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A city\u2019s \u201chomeless budget\u201d is primarily an affordable housing budget. It\u2019s not a case of dividing the \u201chomeless budget\u201d into the current number of unhoused. It\u2019s a case of dividing the homeless budget into every unit that the city subsidizes for the unhoused over the past thirty plus years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opponents of funding additional affordable housing and recovery services operate in a fictional world. A world which ends homelessness by defunding nonprofits and shifting their contracts to city workers who get paid substantially more. A world in which people get off drugs without new public funding and then  automatically afford housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can San Francisco\u2019s homeless dollars be spent more strategically? Absolutely. And I\u2019m all for auditing nonprofit contractors and city departments to make sure taxpayers are getting what they deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But shifting homeless dollars to recovery is essential. As is pushing for the federal money needed to end homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s be honest about the crisis. We need homeless policies that succeed in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco\u2019s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Randy Shaw\u00a0on\u00a0September 5, 2023 (BeyondChron.org) August 23 rally against SF’s federal homeless injunction Recovery Must Be Top Priority The debate about America\u2019s homeless crisis has gone off the rails. Consider: Mayor London Breed and California Governor Gavin Newsom publicly condemned a misguided federal injunction imposed on San Francisco. Political leaders rarely weigh… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1031],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28302,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28301\/revisions\/28302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}