Cheaper to help the homeless than jail them

I am writing to inquire about and support the letter “Homeless have nowhere to go for shelter,” written by Walter Ballin on December 7, 2020. Bidwell Park is flooded with homeless people who have nowhere else to go. Especially as the days get colder, homelessness is an issue faced every day by the residents of Chico.

Chico only has one homeless shelter. This is a massive issue in not only this community but communities all over the nation. On any given night, “seventeen out of every 10,000 people in the United States experience homelessness”(State of Homelessness: 2020 Edition — National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2020). Steps need to be taken in response to this crisis. One such step is the decriminalization of homelessness since time spent incarcerated makes a person more likely to be homeless longer.

Protecting equal and fair access to homeless services and shelters will not only allow any person to escape homelessness but will allow people who have faced racism or transphobia to have a fair chance of escaping homelessness as well. Before any of this can happen though, there needs to be a change in how the government handles homelessness. The need to advance a federal budget that will allow effective programs to be available for everyone is greater than ever. Not only a federal budget for programs but a budget for the local homeless community in Chico. It is cheaper to create these programs than to prosecute and jail the homeless, so why are we not putting efforts towards this?