Los Angeles, CA | August 7, 2024 – National Health Foundation (NHF), a leading community-based service provider of recuperative care, housing and community health programs, is joining the call to urge Governor Newsom to reconsider his executive order mandating state agencies clear homeless encampments, and instead invest in and encourage real solutions to ending homelessness.
The Governor’s recent order represents a concerning shift in addressing the homelessness crisis. This approach, while aimed at improving the overall appearance, fails to address the root causes of homelessness and often worsens the suffering of those affected. Displacing individuals in this way can lead to increased vulnerabilities, as the lack of a stable location makes it more difficult for them to access essential services such as healthcare, food, and social support systems within the communities they have created for themselves. This is dehumanizing and overlooks the fundamental issue of insufficient affordable housing and other social services like comprehensive mental health supports.
Further concerns with this order arise when considering that people who do not move or are seen returning to cleared sites are ticketed for a fine and/or arrested. Increasing encampment sweeps increases a person’s interactions with law enforcement and therefore can lead to situations that cyclically keep people unhoused. This approach not only burdens them with debt but also can further complicate their efforts to find stable housing and employment because of a newly acquired criminal record.
It is also important to note, that older adults are the fastest growing population experiencing homelessness. Many of these individuals are chronically homeless and have a host of comorbid conditions making them increasingly vulnerable to orders such as this. It has the unintended consequences of forcing them to rely on episodic interventions that put more pressure on our already fractured systems of support. Our seniors deserve better.
So, the question is, where are people who are unhoused supposed to go? Los Angeles City alone has more than three times the number of people experiencing homelessness than there are shelter beds available. According to an audit from LA City’s Controllers Office earlier this year, LA has just over 16,000 shelter beds available at any given time. While the number of people experiencing homelessness decreased by 2.2% this year according to the most recent LAHSA data, that’s still 45,252 people experiencing homelessness. There are clearly not enough beds and shelters.
While we understand that building shelters and housing is a complex and lengthy process, the answer to getting people off the streets and out of encampments should not include encampment sweeps and arrest or ticketing. Moving people from one street corner to another does more harm than good, and as proven by so many recent attempts, is entirely ineffective. See LA City’s report on Municipal Code 41.18 for ineffective encampment responses. We urge Gov. Newsom and our local decision makers to take other effective and more human-centered approaches to reducing the number of encampments and therefore, people living on the streets.
First and foremost, we encourage policy makers to engage with people who are living on the streets and frontline workers aiming to reduce homelessness. Secondly, at the state level, Legislators and the Governor have the opportunity to vote on and pass Senate Bill 37 – Older Adults and Adults with Disabilities Housing Stability Act. This bill would require that the Department of Housing and Community Development administer a pilot housing subsidy program for older adults and adults with disabilities experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
Here in LA, the Mayor and City Council have the ability to take full advantage of the money being collected by Measure ULA – United to House LA. $11 million has been collected and can be used relatively quickly to provide housing subsidies and homelessness prevention services. We are encouraged that city and county officials are declaring jails will not be used for these encampment sweeps but we also urge the city to eliminate or significantly reduce Municipal Code 41.18. The state, city, and county can also take lessons learned and best practices from Project RoomKey and work to expand hotel/motel vouchers or work to quickly expand master leasing agreements.
Our policy makers have options that can work and treat people with dignity! What we need is for them to understand pushing people around with little to no options, and increasing their chances of incarceration, is a policy choice they are choosing to make. We have the opportunity to choose different. To work together to drive real solutions rather than institute policies that take us back to square one in meeting individuals where they’re at and earning their trust as equal and co-partners in envisioning housing solutions that last and are scalable. Arguably, this executive order may have been well-intentioned. It is nonetheless callous and further positions our unhoused neighbors to be retraumatized by a system that continues to fail miserably in how we both address and support them. We need this spiral of ineffective solutions to stop. We can and should do better for our friends, family members, clients and neighbors experiencing homelessness.
For more info on National Health Foundation and/or their recuperative care/interim housing programs, please email Oscar Miranda at omiranda@nhfca.org.