Solving Homelessness Crisis Requires Group Effort

Published in The Daily Transcript
By Tony Pauker & Mary Lydon
April 6, 2022

Solving homelessness is in the news and on the minds of our communities now more than ever. Millions and millions of dollars in our cities, county, and state are being spent to get people experiencing homelessness the support they need to get off the streets and into shelters and housing. By now it seems we should be further along than we are.

For 20 years, HomeAid San Diego's mission has been to help people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness build new lives. We do this through construction, community engagement, and education. We serve all of San Diego County through our BUILDS, CARES and WORKS programs. Our partner homeless social service agencies serve the entire age, gender, and ethnicity spectrum.

Through our BUILDS program, we have built/renovated 29 shelters in all regions of San Diego County for 14 homeless social services agencies, creating more than 700 new beds and saving $6.5 million in construction costs on $35 million of project value. These facilities house emancipated foster youth, foster youth, abused and neglected children, seniors, veterans, homeless youth, young homeless mothers and their dependent children as well as, addictive individuals, developmentally challenged individuals, single women, families, domestic violence victims, and Alzheimer's patients without family.

Our CARES program provides volunteers with the opportunity to purchase, assemble and distribute care kits for local shelters throughout San Diego County. Our newest program, WORKS, puts into action the belief that homeless or at-risk youth need both job skills (opportunity, training, industry knowledge, and hands-on practice) and relationships (real mentors, on-site coaching, and wrap-around support ) in order to succeed.

Many think that homeless people are mentally ill, have a substance use disorder or both. But there are many reasons why people end up homeless, including difficulties securing and maintaining jobs with a livable wage, and finding and retaining affordable housing -- both "capital" A and "little" a affordable housing. In expensive coastal cities like San Diego, the cost of living adds significantly to the challenge of making ends meet. Other factors that can contribute to becoming homeless include issues such as domestic violence, medical emergency, a death in the family, various forms of family dysfunction or natural disasters.

Another misconception is that emergency shelters will solve the homelessness problem. As important as emergency shelters are, much more is needed. HomeAid America created the graphic alongside this story to show the various aspects of homelessness and the continuum of care required from stakeholders and partners, both public and private, to work together to mitigate this challenging issue of our time.

Solving this community problem is complex, expensive and will take all stakeholders working together to help our homeless community members. This approach is starting to gain significant traction as emerging solutions are moving into action.

Helping homeless individuals with mental health issues who are living on the street is one of the most challenging problems. New public policy emerging from Gov. Gavin Newsom's office proposes a court system that mandates treatment and housing as an alternative to conservatorships, hospitalization or incarceration. The CARE (Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment) Court concept allows family members, first responders, clinicians and community members to refer people for eligibility. In the past, civil and disability rights advocates have been resistant to mandated mental health treatment, and now they are open to exploring a workable solution.

In San Diego, the district attorney's office is proposing a humane plan to reduce crime against and by mentally ill homeless people called Homeless Enhanced Legal Program. This program would allow for psychiatric evaluations and referral to shelters as an alternative to jail. It also looks to change the definition of gravely disabled to mean a condition in which "a person faces a substantial likelihood of physical or mental deterioration and becoming a danger to himself or herself as a result of an untreated mental health disorder."

The private and nonprofit sectors are also teaming up to play a role in finding solutions to alleviate the pain and suffering of unsheltered people, and impacted communities and businesses. The Downtown San Diego Partnership is proposing a "Safe Village" concept. With 422 tent encampments in Downtown San Diego, the Safe Village provides individual tiny homes and wraparound services, which is a more humane alternative. In Los Angeles, HomeAid Los Angeles collaborated with Lennar Homes to build 28 tiny homes in one day for homeless veterans.

Our world is continually changing, and in the last 10 years we have more clearly seen that some are not able to keep up with the fast pace of change. We see the evidence on the street every day by the increasing number of people without shelter.

Working together is the solution -- left, right, businesses, community, faith-based, schools and beyond. Even unsheltered people need to be at the table. We have spent many years pointing fingers and saying "you solve this" but the answer has always been that we need to solve this together. Now that we have figured that out, let's get going.

Tony Pauker is the senior director of land acquisitions for Brookfield Residential and a member of the HomeAid San Diego board. 

Mary Lydon is the executive director for HomeAid San Diego and has 25 years of experience working with private-sector developers, public-sector agencies and nonprofit land use.

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