Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California's capital. Inside the staggering emergency

[Democrats hate freedom]

On 30 Dec 2023, tRUMP <el...@protonmail.com> posted some
news:umpni4$1c1ic$1...@dont-email.me:

> Gavin Newsom, $68 billion dollar deficit because of his fucked up
> COVID policies.

Sitting on the edge of a collection of about 60 tents pitched alongside
the American River, Twana James is doing her best to comfort a friend at
the end of her wits.

All day, the woman says, she had been waiting for a caseworker from a
Sacramento non-profit to come pick her up and put her on a list for
housing. “You wait all day for somebody to come and get you and they
don’t come,” she cries in despair.

A homeless tent is seen on a flooded sidewalk in Skidrow on Thanksgiving
day in Los Angeles. At least 14 unhoused people froze to death in LA
last year, records reveal Read more
James offers her a ride to a shelter that provides food, showers and
counseling. She makes a cheeky comment about her friend’s hair,
eliciting a laugh.

It’s the sort of thing James, 53, does often. She’s a longtime resident
of this encampment in California’s capital, and a caretaker for many of
the elderly people who call it their home.

Dubbed the Island, the tents stretch out on a picturesque plot of land
along the American River. The camp is a quick walk from a busy road, but
feels like a world away from the nearby office buildings and Mexican
chain restaurant. The secluded community has been there for decades,
forming a tight group over the years. But it has expanded in recent
years, as homelessness in the city and county has climbed to record
levels.

During the pandemic, the unhoused population has soared all over
California, but the increase in Sacramento has been particularly
stunning.

The region has seen an almost 70% rise in homelessness since 2019, now
counting more unhoused people than San Francisco. At least 9,278 people
are estimated to be without a home, the majority of whom sleep outdoors
or in vehicles. Encampments can be seen on levees, near schools and next
to busy roads.

The primary force behind the dramatic rise, according to the 2022
point-in-time count, is the high cost of housing. The median home price
in the county has surpassed $500,000 and the median monthly rent is
$2,774, up more than 5% from last year. Some studios downtown rent for
$2,000 a month, said Crystal Sanchez, the president of the Sacramento
Homeless Union, while thousands of people sleep outside.

“Sacramento, the capital of the fifth largest economy in the world,
lacks over 100,000 units of affordable housing,” Sanchez said. “We can’t
survive here. I’ve lived here my whole life.”

The city acknowledges the unfolding emergency, but has struggled to
enact meaningful solutions that match the scale of the problem,
advocates say, particularly as housing prices continue to climb. And
amid outrage over the growing encampments, local authorities have
cracked down on unhoused communities with county bans on camping along
the American River Parkway and near “critical infrastructure”.

Now as tensions over how to respond to the growing number of unhoused
people across the city are heightening, homelessness is on the ballot.
Measure O, an initiative backed by local business leaders unhappy with
Sacramento’s approach, seeks to address the crisis by pushing
encampments out of public spaces and would allow residents “harmed by
unlawful camping” to take legal action against the city. Supporters say
it’s a much-needed shift from the status quo to address homelessness,
while opponents argue it would do nothing to solve the crisis.

We can’t survive here. I’ve lived here my whole life
Crystal Sanchez
“None of us would be surprised [if] it passes because of the anger in
the community. We have a homeless crisis and elected officials are doing
hardly anything about it except for continuing to criminalize people,”
said Bob Erlenbusch, the executive director of the Sacramento Coalition
to End Homelessness, a non-profit advocacy group.

‘Encampments everywhere’
During the pandemic, California’s homeless population, and the
visibility of those residents, surged to unprecedented levels, prompting
the state to pour billions into housing projects and related services to
alleviate the longstanding emergency.

Homelessness had been growing for years in the Golden State due to a
vast shortage of affordable housing – about a quarter of communities in
the state reported the number of people sleeping outside doubled between
2015 and 2019 – and Sacramento was no exception.

In 2015, the area’s unhoused population stood at 2,659, according to
figures that are widely acknowledged to be an undercount, and then
climbed from 5,561 people in 2019 to 9,278 people this year.

Sacramento county now has the second highest rate of per-capita
homelessness of any in the state, just after San Francisco, according to
preliminary data. The situation has “changed dramatically just in the
last three years”, said Erlenbusch. “We have encampments everywhere.”

Our shelters are full of people who have stabilized, found jobs and
can’t find housing Katie Valenzuela
Research by the non-profit that publishes the annual point-in-time count
report found the pandemic is not the primary driver of the rise. In
fact, Covid-era policies such as eviction moratoriums and extended
unemployment benefits may have reduced the number of people becoming
homeless.

“Covid really highlighted the crisis that was always there,” said Katie
Valenzuela, a city council member, adding that pandemic protections
authorities put in place like eviction moratoriums and utility
assistance – and have since done away with – worked.

Instead, the report found homelessness is growing due to the high cost
of housing. Sacramento’s median rent climbed 14% between January 2017
and April 2019, and an average of 20% between March 2020 and November
2021. Rising rents have pushed longtime residents on to the streets
while the shortage of affordable housing has made it difficult for them
to find anywhere else to go.

“You’re starting to see a lot more folks who just can’t find housing, a
lot more seniors, folks with disabilities,” said Valenzuela. “Our
shelters are full of people who have stabilized, found jobs and can’t
find housing.”

Al Garcia, 62, has lived on the Island for about five years since he was
evicted from the nearby apartment he had called home for more than a
decade. A new owner bought his complex and evicted everyone who lived
there, he said. He learned about the encampment from a friend and soon
set up a tent and became acquainted with residents like James.

Some of his neighbors have lived here for decades, despite recent
attempts to clear the area. This is home for residents who have nowhere
else to go, said James. Residents check in on one another, there are
communal resources and even a pet cemetery for residents’ deceased
four-footed friends. James takes people to run errands in her car,
cooking meals and checking in on folks who are sick or disabled. It’s a
rare safe space outdoors for women and elderly people, she says, and the
only one within reach for her and the others who call this community
home.

‘We have faltered’
But living unhoused in Sacramento can be harrowing. The extreme weather
in the valley city has been deadly for people on the streets – last year
eight unhoused people froze to death. Over the summer, homeless
activists sued the city to expand access to shelters amid extreme heat.
One sprawling encampment had a large fire last year that destroyed
dozens of vehicles and tents where unhoused people live.

While the Island is hidden and out of sight, other more visible
encampments can be seen throughout the region next to shopping centers
and apartment buildings. Parents have complained to the city council
about the tents that popped up near their children’s schools.

Residents have charged the encampments create pollution, leave unhoused
people in unsafe conditions and cause fear among community members.
Local businesses have reported rising crime and vandalism and say they
have to clean up needles and other waste. In one Sacramento suburb,
residents said they fear for their safety in local parks and called for
action after a neighbor was allegedly killed by an unhoused man.

Sacramento’s mayor, Darrell Steinberg, has long voiced support for more
shelter and services to alleviate homelessness – during his tenure, the
city has added nearly 1,000 shelter beds. And last year, with the
unhoused population growing to a record high, Steinberg pledged to take
bold action.

“The challenge dominates the city’s agenda and has grown worse during
the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a housing affordability crisis and a clear
failure of a still broken mental health system,” he said during an
address in January 2021. “It is the last degradation for thousands mired
in deep poverty. And it is a profound failure of public policy.”

In summer 2021, Steinberg introduced what he described as the “most
aggressive plan in the history of the city” to combat the emergency. The
city council allocated $100m to support his proposal to create 20
shelters and safe camping spaces.

But the plan has floundered. The city, facing pushback from neighborhood
groups, lawsuits from businesses concerned about crime and drug use,
disagreements between government agencies and a lack of support from
some councilmembers, has yet to open a single site, the Sacramento Bee
reported. In response to the criticism, the mayor told the newspaper
that he doesn’t view that plan as a failure, but has moved his focus to
more long-term solutions, like greater cooperation with the county
government and support for affordable housing.

The city has made strides, said Valenzuela, opening safe parking areas,
expanding shelter beds and using local dollars to keep supporting
state-funded projects that offer unhoused people shelter in converted
hotel rooms. But more needs to be done, she added, including putting
protections in place for renters and expanding affordable housing:
“There should not be people who have income on our streets.

The go to response for most communities is to go back to criminalizing
people experiencing homelessness, which they did Bob Erlenbusch
“We have tried to do more, we have faltered,” she continued. “I think
we’ve really done a lot, but not nearly enough obviously given the scale
of the crisis.”

Erlenbusch, with the Sacramento Coalition to End Homelessness, said the
city’s measures were a failure that left residents, advocates and
neighborhood councils exasperated with nothing to show for it. After
that, he said: “The go-to response for most communities is to go back to
criminalizing people experiencing homelessness, which they did.”

‘We all want the same thing’
In August, officials with the county voted to ban camping along the
American River Parkway, where as many as 3,000 unhoused people camp.
Soon after the city council prohibited tents from blocking sidewalks and
business entrances. The city has also banned camping near “critical
infrastructure”, which includes, schools, hospitals, childcare centers
and levees.

Earlier this year, a coalition of local business groups and the chief of
staff to the previous mayor, began collecting signatures for a ballot
measure to fundamentally change the city’s response to homelessness.

“The situation here was deteriorating. Mayor Steinberg and the council
were certainly making efforts to try to address things at scale. But
pretty much for the last five years there had just been an impasse at
best, finger pointing at worst,” said Daniel Conway, lawyer and former
aide to ex-mayor Kevin Johnson who helped spearhead the measure. “Things
were getting worse at a time when our leaders couldn’t get on the same
page.”

Conway and other lawyers drafted what would become Measure O, he said,
in hopes of compelling authorities to address the crisis “at scale”.
Initial polling indicated the measure would probably pass and the city
council, concerned the measure could bankrupt the city, moved to put its
own version of the plan on the ballot.

Measure O, or the Emergency Shelter and Enforcement Act of 2022, would
ban encampments on public and private property – unhoused people who
turn down available shelter could face a misdemeanor charge. The measure
creates an “obligation” for the city to do outreach and would direct the
city manager to establish a minimum number of shelter spaces.

Conway argues against criticism that the measure would further
criminalize unhoused people.

“That is in many ways what the city is currently able to do,” he said.
“We definitely see an emphasis on enforcement and when it comes to
creating shelter capacity [officials] kind of shrug their shoulders.”

People will vote for this in a year or two and see nothing has changed
and get even more frustrated Katie Valenzuela
The measure has broad support, Conway said, and he and other proponents
are hopeful that it will bring real change to the city. “The reality
here in Sacramento is this basically touches every corner of the city,”
he said. “People are done with the explanations and talking points and
people want to know what you’re going to actually do about it.”

But the measure, which would only take effect if the city and county
come to a mutual agreement, only requires the city to open additional
shelter beds if there’s a budget surplus – something Sacramento probably
will not see for years.

The Sacramento Bee editorial board said the proposal “would do little to
change the lives or number of unhoused people on the streets” and
opponents argue it is instead designed to move people, rather than
actually manage the crisis.

“It’s an open invitation for litigation that’s going to tie up the city
for quite a long time,” said Erlenbusch. “It does not provide any
services so far, it doesn’t provide any shelter, it doesn’t provide any
affordable housing.”

“Nobody likes what’s happening right now. None of us think this is OK,”
Valenzuela said. “We actually all want the same thing.” But the measure
is not the answer, she said. “People will vote for this in a year or two
and see nothing has changed and get even more frustrated.”

In the meantime, many of those who live on the streets have little hope
of their situation changing.

“There’s no place to go,” Garcia said.

James is focused on preserving her community, where people take care of
each other, and stay out of trouble, she said. James, known as the mayor
of the Island, has fought against eviction efforts.

“We’re not hurting nothing. We make sure we don’t have the police here.
We stay out of trouble. We don’t let troublemakers come in here,” she
said. “It’s just a place where we live and they just want to take it
away from us.”

James hopes that won’t happen. She’s helping unhoused friends register
to vote and campaigning against Measure O. “We can make a difference,”
she said.

The city recently announced plans to create a short-term, sanctioned,
fenced encampment for the residents of the Island with bathrooms and
showers, security as well as food and water. James is skeptical of such
plans, she said, but hopes to see her friends move into permanent
housing. She’ll stay on the Island until every single person there does.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/03/california-capital-homele
ssness-emergency-midterm