5 Radical Ideas for Solving Homelessness in California
When it comes to ending homelessness, our president blames state politicians. State politicians blame local governments. Local officials impose new laws and restrictions and unleash cities that are overflowing with people on the streets, poor sanitation, disease, increased crime, death and higher taxes.
Their collective response is for us to ignore, tolerate and accept all of this for the greater good of society — for us to pay more in taxes based on ideological positions that stem from hate for the other side. They spend most of their time calling out people as racists, bigots, and idiots for opposing their ideas. In the meantime, our elected officials continue to approve and throw billions at this crisis with very little consideration, research and funding going to longer-term care solutions.
To effect real change, we need a nonpartisan approach that incorporates these five radical ideas:
1. Eliminate proposition 47 in California to squeeze the drug dealers/czars out.
The threshold for drug possession, grand theft, and shoplifting all must be reduced from something lower than the current $950. If people are caught carrying around hundreds of dollars in heroin and cocaine, they obviously have a substance abuse problem or intending to distribute for sale. At $20 per sale for a fentanyl pellet, a dealer can make around 47 transactions and be charged with only a misdemeanor.
What’s the incentive to the addict to get help when getting arrested for possession is only a misdemeanor? Politicians spun the legislation as too penal for those getting arrested for marijuana possession. Marijuana is now legal.
This argument was also used to eliminate the “3 strike rule” by Obama. Addiction rates are soaring in this country. And so is illegal immigration.
Remember that the savings (estimated at $150 million) for reduced incarceration were supposed to go to drug and mental health treatment, programs for at-risk students in K-12 schools, and victim services. This is clearly not happening.
An initiative in 2018 to eliminate much of Proposition 47 and other criminal justice reform measures failed to make the last ballot but has qualified for the November 2020 ballot. Don’t forget about this one next year!
2. Empower the police to punish the drug dealers.
Most of the dealers are here illegally. Let the police report them to the immigration authorities. Crime rates are down in cities that have lower levels of poverty, illegals, and a larger and more effective police force.
3. Give judges three options when sentencing: jail, long-term institutionalized care, or deportation if illegal or undocumented.
If people are illegal and charged with a drug felony for sale or intent to sell, the only choice is deportation. Violent crime and mass incarceration rates have been down for nearly a decade mainly due to an increased police force, so let’s keep it that way by empowering our law enforcement officers. While the jail population is down in certain cities and states, the drug criminals are set free with misdemeanors and lesser felonies. They are free to begin dealing again and enable the homeless who are powerless over their addiction and mental health problems.
4. Modify the “open borders” position to exclude convicted felons, especially those with drug-related convictions.
Personally, I believe in taking care of our own first and cleaning up our streets and houses before we can accept anyone who is not documented (We still need a plan and process here.) But we are talking about compromising on both sides in order to make some real progress.
5. Start allocating more dollars to longer-term care facilities as promised for decades. This is simply a must:
· The average stay in an emergency shelter without the proper facilities ranges from hours to days.
· In facilities with longer-term care the average stay is increasing from weeks to months.
Where there are facilities with transitional living, comprehensive care, education and job training, the average stay is now over six months (e.g., Saint John’s Program for Real Change in Sacramento). Unfortunately, the government has deemed many of these facilities as high barrier for having mandatory drug testing, counseling, education and training. Federal welfare programs do not provide enough monetary support (e.g., disability, welfare) for people to afford the rent, basic necessities, and proper care (e.g., medication, therapy).
Regardless of one’s political affiliation, I think many people would agree that the current strategy to tax and spend money carelessly is clearly not working. We can’t build our way out of this issue as too many people need longer-term care to become empowered to live a better life and make a decent living. Not punishing drug criminals is only empowering them more and disempowering the homeless, as they remain in the grips of addiction and mental health disorders.
We must show the homeless that getting help is the best alternative, and we must begin to reduce and eliminate the fatal alternatives. It sounds harsh on the surface, but we must narrow down the options and not hold our society hostage to poor choices of our elected officials. There is a way out! As for the drug dealers, there is a way out as well. It’s called jail or deportation.
As for the politicians: Make a decision to get involved and allocate the time and resources to expand and build out longer-term care facilities and stand behind it. Stop enacting legislation that deems these facilities as high barrier. Start looking out for the collective good by eliminating laws that protect drug dealers and criminals. Stop asking the tax- paying citizens to ignore, tolerate, and accept the situation. Simply put, either get involved or get out of the way! Be a part of the solution or set the dollars aside and let a non-profit of homelessness alliances, organizations, advocates, and mental health and substance abuse experts take over. Make way for a group that has no political ties to the outcome. Something that has the clout like the NRA. Set our tax dollars aside and empower something that can make a difference for the homeless and our society.
Steve