☆ Homelessness is a symptom of bigger problems
Local political commenter Denise Kalm says that local gov’ts mis-label the real issues with our homeless community, ignoring the upstream problems of mental health and addiction. She says this “infantilizes” our unhoused neighbors, and leads to bad policy. An Opp Now exclusive.
Imagine going to a doctor with a cough, a headache and some congestion. He prescribes cough medicine and an allergy pill, telling you that you have a cough and congestion. A few days later, you get sicker and find that you actually have pneumonia. This is a doctor who isn’t doing his job, mistaking symptoms for the disease. And, by the way, this rarely happens.
Homelessness as Disease
To many people mistake the lack of a home as the problem, not a symptom. When you see it this way, the solution has to be housing, which, the way it has been “solved” has been extremely costly. But the result has been more homelessness because people in states where homes aren’t provided come to where they get free housing without a requirement to get treated for mental problems, get off drugs and alcohol and move to being self-supporting. Why wouldn’t they? With free needles, an ample drug supply and no expectations that they take responsibility, nothing changes. Just as someone with pneumonia doesn’t get better by being treated only for their symptoms.
The problem isn’t homelessness. That’s just a symptom. You don’t treat symptoms, unless the underlying cause is something that will get better on its own, as it does with most viruses. But in almost every instance, our governments insist on calling homelessness the real problem. It allows them to feel good about themselves and spend a lot of our money, while accomplishing nothing.
The underlying “disease” is actually irresponsibility in most cases. Those who are temporarily homeless due to a series of unfortunate happenings are not included in this. They typically figure out a path to self-sufficiency and only need a little help to get there.
We’re talking about the drug or alcohol-addicted and the mental patients. Instead of holding them accountable, our governments are infantilizing these people, giving them handouts instead of a hand up. They believe there is no need for the addicted to submit to getting off their drug of choice and start learning how to support themselves. For the mental patients, it is about a discipline of taking necessary medication or being hospitalized, if there is no other option. But this is NOT what is being done. We used to insist that shelters would only be provided if you complied with these rules. No more. That’s “insensitive” according to the powers that be. But is letting people remain irresponsible and helpless a good thing for adults? I think not. It’s letting them kill themselves at taxpayer expense. Let’s start working to cure the “disease,” antisocial and self-destructive behavior.
Some Data
How we deal with homelessness in CA is a serious and costly problem. CA spent over $24 billion of our taxes trying to address the problem, but it has gotten much worse. Despite the CA Interagency Council on Homelessness trying to track the spending, they haven’t done their job. “The State lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because Cal ICH [the California Interagency Council on Homelessness] has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness,” state auditor Grant Parks wrote in his introduction to the report earlier this year. During this period, the homeless population grew by 20%.
As an example, Mountain View’s homeless population spiked 56% over the past two years with the vast majority of unhoused people residing in vehicles, according to a report released by Santa Clara County. This is the worst-case city, but in all cities, the homeless population continues to grow, despite added housing.
A large homeless encampment is formed on the "Plaza of the Flags" elevated park at the Santa Ana Civic Center complex, Oct. 11, 2017, in Santa Ana, California.
If you were to spend a lot of money on a drug to solve a medical issue, wouldn’t you start challenging your doctor if you felt no better of perhaps, even worse? Of course, you would. But politicians aren’t willing to look at the “Housing First” solution’s performance. And, they aren’t considering the success stories other places have achieved by demanding sobriety, mental health treatment and commitment to learning how to work.
Humanity isn’t a House
Though our state and local governments continue to focus on the symptom, housing isn’t the solution to the problem just as cough syrup doesn’t cure pneumonia. Low expectations produce lousy results. It’s true in schools (a big problem in California), but in the situations described here it is even more true. We expect nothing from this class of homeless, and we get enfeebled, useless people who might have something to offer. If you never grow as a person and learn to support yourself, you essentially go back to being a baby, needing everything done for you. And that is NOT compassionate.
Let’s end the stupid and costly “Housing First” programs and go back to empowering adults to be responsible.
Denise P. Kalm is a political commentator and Substack blogger (Right on the Left Coast | Denise Kalm | Substack); on the Executive Committee for Contra Costa Taxpayers; a sponsor for ETS-SP helping veterans move to civilian life; author of Retirement Savvy - Designing Your Next Great Adventure, Career Savvy - Keeping & Transforming Your Job, First Job Savvy - Get a Job, Start Your Career, Tech Grief - Survive & Thrive Through Career Losses, Lifestorm (novel); many years in IT and in technical marketing.
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