ARTICLE
Solutions to address homelessness are fraught with uncertainty. It is hard to understand why a program is crafted in such a way by coupling a variety of funding sources to accomplish a goal — but with little public transparency following complex rules that have shown limited results. This is a common problem in every community in California dealing with its homeless population. In Santa Cruz County the problem is magnified. Let me be clear — this is not a debate that our community leaders assigned to the task lack integrity, compassion and or not working towards a solution. They have integrity, are compassionate and I have deep respect for these community leaders and want them to succeed. But maybe the system in place needs to be tweaked or remodeled. The primary example we see across California is the daunting task of taking federal, state and local funding sources — all gobbled together — where each funding source has specific requirements of how you spend the money and what timeline is followed. It is a puzzle with some missing pieces. Our local news reporting team at Santa Cruz Local has been scouring reports, making public records requests, and trying to find answers: Why are we spending more money, more government employees time and dedication and non-profit resources to address our homelessness problem but we can’t seem to pinpoint a solution? According to the recent Santa Cruz Local’s three part series, they summarize the issue in the very first sentence of the second story: “As leaders in Santa Cruz County try to address homelessness, their efforts lack transparency and are hindered by a rigid and disjointed system of state and federal grants, a Santa Cruz Local investigation has found. “Although local governments report many aspects of homeless services spending and outcomes to the state, leaders in Santa Cruz County have not painted a clear, comprehensive picture of how public dollars are spent on services. Santa Cruz Local’s Part Two explores the money system and its constraints and problems.” > Problem 1: A lack of transparency and metrics > Problem 2: Tension between short and long-term goals > Problem 3: Grant money drives services, not goals > Problem 4: A “maze” of bureaucracy > City of Santa Cruz Spending > City of Watsonville Spending You can read the Santa Cruz Local Part 2 report here: https://santacruzlocal.org/2023/05/05/homeless-services-money-part-2/ Over the past several years dating back to before the pandemic, the Chamber and other business organizations have participated in numerous public meetings and working sessions all staged to decipher the homelessness problem. The business community has offered suggestions and we openly work with our government and non-profit leaders to find solutions. It is not for lack of caring and commitment by local government leaders (city and county) and our non-profit organizations. They are working non-stop to help a homeless person into temporary transitional housing and hopefully making systemic progress on permanent housing for each homeless person in our community. It is just a confusing set of rules and programmatic programs that seemingly don’t work with speed, efficiency and direct auditable results. Again don’t get me wrong — there have been success stories that show progress — the work by Housing Matters and the establishment of a veteran’s village in Ben Lomond are two examples of success. There are others too, however, the latest number of homeless in the point-in-time count shows a slight increase in homelessness. A few years back one of our business associations took on an extensive review of the problem and offered suggestions. In March 2019, the Santa Cruz County Business Council board of directors adopted a resolution. You can see the SCCBC report here: https://sccbusinesscouncil.com/business-council-position-and-resources-on-homelessness/. That report supported the county approach of Housing First, but laid out four objective solutions that could be stepping stones to a solid program. It is unclear if any of their suggestions are a part of the county programs. The Santa Cruz County Chamber has kept our members informed about the ongoing homelessness in our region and we have written numerous articles in the past several years through our weekly eNews coverage, the latest example was in August 2022. https://web.santacruzchamber.org/news/newsarticledisplay.aspx?ArticleID=1967 The premise of the county plan follows the early adoption by the Obama Administration in 2013, overseen by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program that is scripted in language from the federally mandated McKinney Act. That Act’s funding strategy is to direct funding to the states and counties that link to a “Housing First” methodology from Washington DC. The Santa Cruz Local Part 2 story shows a statewide map where each county’s system begins with a group noted as Continuum of Care which tries to prioritize programs and spending. These community leaders — many of them you will recognize as trailblazers in their careers— have adopted a new group name: Housing 4 Health Partnership. https://www.homelessactionpartnership.org/About/HousingforHealthPartnershipPolicyBoard.aspx. America’s “Housing First” model has been in place for the past decade, and as recently as last December 2022, the Biden Administration released its new homeless blueprint issued by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness: https://www.usich.gov/All_In_The_Federal_Strategic_Plan_to_Prevent_and_End_Homelessness.pdf. The new plan is a doubling down on the 2013 Housing First process with the goal that the number of people experiencing homelessness will decrease 25% by January 2025. That hasn’t happened. According to the Biden Administration, double spending from $4.1 billion annually to $8.7 billion will decrease homelessness. Here are the facts: The Biden Administration is hoping Congress will accept this increase even in a divided legislative body despite a 200% increase in annual spending. Homeless America rose by 15.6% pre-pandemic. In California, using the Housing First model since 2016, we have experienced a 33.8% increase in homelessness despite a 101% increase in spending. The suggestion that housing is a healthcare solution and the obligation that every American has a right to housing. However, a 2018 study by the National Academy of Sciences– the federal government’s research institute—unequivocally refutes the notion that housing improves health outcomes for the homeless. “Overall, except for some evidence that PSH improves health outcomes among individuals with HIV/AIDS, the committee found that there is no substantial published evidence as yet to demonstrate that PSH improves health outcomes or reduces health care costs.” There was an increase in homelessness after a statistical drop between 2010-2016. This increase can be associated with decades of growing economic inequality exacerbated by a global pandemic, soaring housing costs, and housing supply shortfalls. It is further exacerbated by inequitable access to health care, including mental health and/or substance use disorder treatment; discrimination and exclusion of people of color, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities and older adults; as well as the consequences of mass incarceration.`` So now where are we headed in a decade-long approach to solving our homeless problem? If history serves as a guiding point, the recent inclusion of Governor Newsom’s CARES Court is slowly rolling out in targeted counties and will likely be implemented in Santa Cruz County next year. We will see if that separates the homeless from the mentally ill and health addicts. The continuum of care members (Housing 4 Health Partnership) continue to meet regularly and work on the mission: The County of Santa Cruz, cities within the county, and community members recognize the need for strong collaborative action to ensure all county residents have stable, safe, and healthy places to live. The Housing for a Healthy Santa Cruz County Strategic Framework. https://www.housingforhealthpartnership.org/About/HousingforaHealthySantaCruzCounty.aspx. The Framework sets goals to reduce the number of households experiencing homelessness at a point in time by just over 25% between January 2019 and January 2024. It also calls for a 50% reduction in the number of households living “unsheltered” in places such as the streets, parks, cars, and unsafe structures. The Framework goals to reduce homelessness are here: 2019 Numbers: 307 Sheltered Households 1,098 Unsheltered 1,405 Total homeless 2024 Numbers 485 Sheltered Households 549 Unsheltered 1,034 Total Homeless To my knowledge, the point-in-time count that occurred on February 23, 2023, has not been released as of this date. It will be helpful to see if any progress has been made since the last point-in-time count. We all want solutions to help our homeless population. This is a difficult policy issue for any one city or county to achieve success. Collaboration and a possible shift in the process are necessary.
Solutions to address homelessness are fraught with uncertainty. It is hard to understand why a program is crafted in such a way by coupling a variety of funding sources to accomplish a goal — but with little public transparency following complex rules that have shown limited results. This is a common problem in every community in California dealing with its homeless population. In Santa Cruz County the problem is magnified.
Let me be clear — this is not a debate that our community leaders assigned to the task lack integrity, compassion and or not working towards a solution. They have integrity, are compassionate and I have deep respect for these community leaders and want them to succeed. But maybe the system in place needs to be tweaked or remodeled.
The primary example we see across California is the daunting task of taking federal, state and local funding sources — all gobbled together — where each funding source has specific requirements of how you spend the money and what timeline is followed. It is a puzzle with some missing pieces.
Our local news reporting team at Santa Cruz Local has been scouring reports, making public records requests, and trying to find answers: Why are we spending more money, more government employees time and dedication and non-profit resources to address our homelessness problem but we can’t seem to pinpoint a solution? According to the recent Santa Cruz Local’s three part series, they summarize the issue in the very first sentence of the second story: “As leaders in Santa Cruz County try to address homelessness, their efforts lack transparency and are hindered by a rigid and disjointed system of state and federal grants, a Santa Cruz Local investigation has found.
“Although local governments report many aspects of homeless services spending and outcomes to the state, leaders in Santa Cruz County have not painted a clear, comprehensive picture of how public dollars are spent on services. Santa Cruz Local’s Part Two explores the money system and its constraints and problems.”
You can read the Santa Cruz Local Part 2 report here:
https://santacruzlocal.org/2023/05/05/homeless-services-money-part-2/
Over the past several years dating back to before the pandemic, the Chamber and other business organizations have participated in numerous public meetings and working sessions all staged to decipher the homelessness problem. The business community has offered suggestions and we openly work with our government and non-profit leaders to find solutions. It is not for lack of caring and commitment by local government leaders (city and county) and our non-profit organizations. They are working non-stop to help a homeless person into temporary transitional housing and hopefully making systemic progress on permanent housing for each homeless person in our community. It is just a confusing set of rules and programmatic programs that seemingly don’t work with speed, efficiency and direct auditable results. Again don’t get me wrong — there have been success stories that show progress — the work by Housing Matters and the establishment of a veteran’s village in Ben Lomond are two examples of success. There are others too, however, the latest number of homeless in the point-in-time count shows a slight increase in homelessness.
A few years back one of our business associations took on an extensive review of the problem and offered suggestions. In March 2019, the Santa Cruz County Business Council board of directors adopted a resolution. You can see the SCCBC report here: https://sccbusinesscouncil.com/business-council-position-and-resources-on-homelessness/. That report supported the county approach of Housing First, but laid out four objective solutions that could be stepping stones to a solid program. It is unclear if any of their suggestions are a part of the county programs.
The Santa Cruz County Chamber has kept our members informed about the ongoing homelessness in our region and we have written numerous articles in the past several years through our weekly eNews coverage, the latest example was in August 2022.
https://web.santacruzchamber.org/news/newsarticledisplay.aspx?ArticleID=1967
The premise of the county plan follows the early adoption by the Obama Administration in 2013, overseen by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program that is scripted in language from the federally mandated McKinney Act. That Act’s funding strategy is to direct funding to the states and counties that link to a “Housing First” methodology from Washington DC.
The Santa Cruz Local Part 2 story shows a statewide map where each county’s system begins with a group noted as Continuum of Care which tries to prioritize programs and spending. These community leaders — many of them you will recognize as trailblazers in their careers— have adopted a new group name:
Housing 4 Health Partnership. https://www.homelessactionpartnership.org/About/HousingforHealthPartnershipPolicyBoard.aspx. America’s “Housing First” model has been in place for the past decade, and as recently as last December 2022, the Biden Administration released its new homeless blueprint issued by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness: https://www.usich.gov/All_In_The_Federal_Strategic_Plan_to_Prevent_and_End_Homelessness.pdf.
The new plan is a doubling down on the 2013 Housing First process with the goal that the number of people experiencing homelessness will decrease 25% by January 2025. That hasn’t happened. According to the Biden Administration, double spending from $4.1 billion annually to $8.7 billion will decrease homelessness. Here are the facts: The Biden Administration is hoping Congress will accept this increase even in a divided legislative body despite a 200% increase in annual spending. Homeless America rose by 15.6% pre-pandemic. In California, using the Housing First model since 2016, we have experienced a 33.8% increase in homelessness despite a 101% increase in spending. The suggestion that housing is a healthcare solution and the obligation that every American has a right to housing.
However, a 2018 study by the National Academy of Sciences– the federal government’s research institute—unequivocally refutes the notion that housing improves health outcomes for the homeless. “Overall, except for some evidence that PSH improves health outcomes among individuals with HIV/AIDS, the committee found that there is no substantial published evidence as yet to demonstrate that PSH improves health outcomes or reduces health care costs.”
There was an increase in homelessness after a statistical drop between 2010-2016. This increase can be associated with decades of growing economic inequality exacerbated by a global pandemic, soaring housing costs, and housing supply shortfalls. It is further exacerbated by inequitable access to health care, including mental health and/or substance use disorder treatment; discrimination and exclusion of people of color, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities and older adults; as well as the consequences of mass incarceration.``
So now where are we headed in a decade-long approach to solving our homeless problem? If history serves as a guiding point, the recent inclusion of Governor Newsom’s CARES Court is slowly rolling out in targeted counties and will likely be implemented in Santa Cruz County next year. We will see if that separates the homeless from the mentally ill and health addicts.
The continuum of care members (Housing 4 Health Partnership) continue to meet regularly and work on the mission: The County of Santa Cruz, cities within the county, and community members recognize the need for strong collaborative action to ensure all county residents have stable, safe, and healthy places to live. The Housing for a Healthy Santa Cruz County Strategic Framework. https://www.housingforhealthpartnership.org/About/HousingforaHealthySantaCruzCounty.aspx.
The Framework sets goals to reduce the number of households experiencing homelessness at a point in time by just over 25% between January 2019 and January 2024. It also calls for a 50% reduction in the number of households living “unsheltered” in places such as the streets, parks, cars, and unsafe structures.
The Framework goals to reduce homelessness are here:
2019 Numbers:
307 Sheltered Households 1,098 Unsheltered 1,405 Total homeless
2024 Numbers
485 Sheltered Households 549 Unsheltered 1,034 Total Homeless
To my knowledge, the point-in-time count that occurred on February 23, 2023, has not been released as of this date. It will be helpful to see if any progress has been made since the last point-in-time count. We all want solutions to help our homeless population. This is a difficult policy issue for any one city or county to achieve success. Collaboration and a possible shift in the process are necessary.