Homelessness and Solutions

Preventing homelessness is the first step. Because homelessness is now a national issue, not only state funding but also federal funding must be allocated for programs that are easily accessible to anyone who is moments away from losing their home.  Some families are many months behind on rent or have a sudden expense or illness that was not expected.    Sudden life changes can put families who are on the verge of losing their home in danger.  Having an easily accessible crisis center to help families and individuals on the verge of homelessness with the resources they need would greatly help prevent homelessness.  

Homelessness is affecting our cities, our safety, and our businesses.  Temporary housing, close to where the homeless currently reside, would give the homeless individuals a chance to stabilize.   Many groups already provide temporary housing and coordination between the groups will help reduce taxpayer expenses.  This can be done by providing a national platform where all groups that currently offer help  can share the services that they provide and the openings that they currently have.

Transitioning from temporary housing to permanent housing is essential.  With the help of professionals who can address medical, housing, and social needs,  the previously homeless can find all the resources they need to get back on their feet again.  This housing would also be an environment to receive care and training for a new job.  This housing and training would be located anywhere in the US.  

Some homeless people cannot live independently.  Because mental health and substance use is a crisis in the United States, we need more psychiatric beds to provide care for those who need help.  We don't have enough psychiatric beds, while our neighbors to the north, in Canada,  have dedicated psychiatric hospital beds to help patients.  For example, the city of Toronto has 493 psychiatric beds.  We have few dedicated psychiatric hospitals.  We lost most of our psychiatric hospitals in California during the Reagan administration.  Since then people who were previously able to get help have been left to fend for themselves on the streets.

Campaigns such as my bid for US Senate will help bring Federal dollars to house, rehabilitate and heal our homeless by coordinating efforts of groups, charities, veterans groups and others who are already helping the homeless.  Much private funding is already being used and many groups are independently and tirelessly working on homelessness.  California has spent billions of dollars in the last few years, but this has not decreased our rapidly expanding homeless population.  The Department of Housing and Urban Development had a budget of 61 billion dollars in 2021 ($60,000,000,000)  Most of the funds are spent on temporary measures rather than long term and coordinated planning for the future.

Many university groups have studied the reasons for homelessness and have proposed solutions for homelessness.    Just like in medical research, where different treatments are tested  to find out which one is best, the same needs to be done for homeless programs.   Each of the proposed solutions need to be tried in order to find out how to spend the least while still getting the most effective and long lasting outcome for this national crisis, while helping our most vulnerable Americans.