Keeping the homeless homeless
State, private grants incentivize keeping the homeless in endless cycle
Last week’s reporting in the California Post about a study from L.A. City Hall that nearly half a billion dollars on city homeless programs was basically wasted should be no surprise.
The fact of the matter is that California state and most local grants, along with those from most private foundations, come with strings requiring homeless service agencies to adopt policies that prevent the chronically homeless from getting the kind of assistance that can help them turn their lives around.
Here in San Diego County, the nonprofit Solutions for Change is struggling to keep its doors open because it refuses to bend a knee to the provably failed “housing first” mandate that comes with most state and private grants (and, until the last election brought relief, federal grants as well).
Most chronically homeless suffer from mental illness, and many compound that with substance abuse. “Housing first” enables the kind of self-destructive addictive behavior that led to someone’s son or daughter, brother or sister, mom or dad becoming homeless in the first place. Simply giving them free housing without requiring measurable commitments to sobriety, job training and education will not ever help them become self-sufficient. It also makes it difficult, if not impossible, to effectively diagnose mental illness whose symptoms may be masked or mimicked by substance abuse.
The problem with grants that require “housing first” is that these grants incentivize the wrong measurables: Rather than looking at how many formerly homeless have become self-sufficient, California state (and many private) grants are more interested in how many homeless come through a program. Being measured only on turnstile counts means that agencies accepting these funds are perversely incentivized to keep people on the streets or in agency housing so they can serve them again in the future, and qualify for grant renewal.
And as the Post report illustrates, other programs in Los Angeles are using grant money to make living on the streets more comfortable: bringing blankets, sleeping bags, food and clothing to the homeless.
Enabling people to live on the street more comfortably only succeeds in keeping them in danger. It is estimated that 100 percent of chronically homeless women are the victims of rape. Robbery, assault and battery are common in homeless encampments, with few victims willing to file a police report out of a fear of retribution.
It’s a pretty shallow compassion that advocates for letting people with mental illness and substance abuse issues “choose” to live in a perpetual state of fear and real risk.
Far too many “homeless service” non-profits exist more to provide career opportunities for their staff than they do to actually provide the kinds of services that many homeless need – including, above all, acquiring the tools necessary to achieve and maintain sobriety.
The state, Los Angeles, and cities and counties across California have poured untold billions of dollars into the homeless problem the last decade only to see it grow significantly worse.
Until public officials decide to prioritize the health and safety of our neighbors who are homeless with programs that incentivize their well-being, we’ll continue to pour scarce dollars down the drain, dollars that all too often are used to worsen the plight of those we claim to assist.