When ‘misplaced compassion’ does more harm than good
There are two models followed by states to deal with homelessness in the US; one works and the other doesn’t.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there has been a decrease in homelessness in 30 states and an increase in 20 states in the past 10 years. According to HUD data, the number of homeless people in the 49 states other than California declined 18% between 2010 and 2020 but increased 31% in California in the same period. In many states, homelessness has decreased by half! For example, in Florida the rate of homeless is 12.8 per 10,000, less than 1/3 of California’s and the number of homeless in Florida has DECREASED 50% in the past 10 years. The same is true in Texas.
The difference is policy. In states with increasing homeless, like California, the “societal guardrails” that provide people a path out of addiction and mental illness to a normal life have been removed. The decriminalization of hard drug use and property crimes as well as cash payments to the homeless lock them into their squalid existence by enabling self-destructive behaviors. According to a recent article in The Guardian, San Francisco makes cash payments of $620 a month to the homeless. The CDC says 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the past 12 months. San Francisco’s response is to make out easier for addicts to shoot up by providing free needles and soonto-be-opened supervised drug sites for addicts can shoot up. The results are not unexpected, an exploding number of addicted homeless people who are ratcheted ever deeper into a life of despair and early death.
In states like Florida that are experiencing a decline in homelessness, laws against hard drug use and property crime are enforced. Camping in public spaces in not allowed. If you are a drug addict and arrested in Florida, you are given the choice of treatment or jail. Not in California
(not anymore). These differences in outcomes have become clear over the past 10 years but the homeless enablers in California continue to double down on obviously failed policies. These policies are failing our cities and the homeless.
Walking by the Chico City Council Chambers a few weeks ago a young man was lying in the dirt, passed out, presumably from drug use. Other people in the “camp” wandered around completely oblivious him. What has become of our society? This person was not handicapped or helpless but should have been a young man in the prime of life. The Pallet Shelter was open, so he had somewhere safe and secure to go (with food, services, and a future). There are certainly jobs available for anyone willing to work. Yet this poor soul was laying in the dirt because homeless enablers and California public policy make it easy to “camp” anywhere, with little or no accountability.
The result is more people than ever drink at the well of addiction, squalor and an early death. Homeless die at three times the rate of the rest of the population. A guest editor last week boasted of delivering 30 truckloads of supplies to the homeless … this “compassion” may make the people who provide free stuff feel good about themselves, but it is enabling self-destructive behavior — behavior that all too often can result in an early death.
These policies also kill towns and cities. Every society has people who are challenged in various ways. The latest Point-inTime count found that there are 885 homeless people in a population of 102,000 people in Chico. The homeless enablers and the decision by the last city council in April 2020 to make camping legal in our public spaces resulted in the lowest functioning .9% of our population defining Civic Life for the other 99.1% of the population. Thirty truckloads of trash didn’t help. This is unacceptable.
Not surprisingly, the homeless die at an average age of 50, compared to 79 for the general population. It is estimated that 4,800 homeless died in California in 2021, three percent of the total homeless population. If you are homeless, you are three times more likely to die than the housed population. If California
had the same rate of homelessness as Florida 3,200 of those people would be alive today.
The policy of enablement without accountability is literally killing homeless people by the thousands, but hey, at least they are dying without their “rights” being infringed upon. In Chico we now have shelter space for the homeless …they must go there.
Helping the less fortunate is a noble part of Christian and American culture, particularly when those being helped are attempting to help themselves achieve a sober, dignified, selfsustaining life. The Jesus Center, CHAT, and the Salvation Army are excellent examples of local programs that are helping people regain productive lives.
Alternatively, the California model of enabling people to stay addicted and live in a homeless “camp,” to make a political point, is destructive to them and the cities in which they live.