Homelessness In California
Part 1
During the 1980’s, homelessness in California, and the U.S. for that matter, began to increase at a rapid pace, and is now at a historically high rate. The reason for this growth in the homeless population is not due to a single issue, but since its growth many theories and explanations have been offered as to why. Some popular explanations point to the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, the recent failure of the housing market, the government’s reluctance to help support single-parent families, and the effects of widespread illegal drug use in urban areas. With California’s budgetary constraints and a plummeting house market, this problem is only growing larger.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines homelessness as an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is either a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations. This would include welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the 2008 Homeless Assessment Report to Congress it was recorded that in one given night there was 664,414 homeless people across the nation, and it is estimated that the recession that started in late 2008 has added over a hundred-thousand more homeless in the past three years. They also provided a breakdown showing the proportions of each race and age group in this total count:
Race
- 37.9% are White, non-Hispanic/Latino
- 11.6% are White, Hispanic/Latino
- 41.7% are Black or African American
- 0.8% are Asian
- 1.9% are Native Indian or Alaska Native
- 0.7% are Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
- 5.4% are Several Races
Age
- 2.2% are Under 1
- 8.1% are 1 to 5
- 6.8% are 6 to 12
- 3.7% are 13 to 17
- 22.2% are 18 to 30
- 40.3% are 31 to 50
- 14.0% are 51 to 61
- 2.8% are 62 and older
These statistics are only based on a census taken in one night, in terms of one year the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty did a study which estimates between 2.3 and 3.5 million people experience homelessness in America per year since the recession.
In comparison to the rest of the nation, California has arguably the worst homeless problem in America. California was already millions of dollars in debt before the recession, and since then the damage to the state’s budget has been catastrophic, thus causing the homeless rates not only to continue, but to grow exponentially. Another cause of the increase in homelessness is deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. Around the early 1980’s the American government took a new view on the mentally ill, since they were put in institutions in which they were taken care of and almost everything was done for them the government decided that this method would never help the disabled live on their own and that the mental institutions were not worth government spending. This resulted in institutions getting shut down throughout America, resulting in an abundance of mentally ill people with no place to live. This has been an obvious major cause of homelessness seeing as thirty-nine percent of homeless people report some form of mental illness according to data comprised by Samhsha's National Mental Health Information Center. Another government related reason for homelessness is the government’s reluctance to subsidize low income, single parent families. Single parent families often do not make enough money to survive above the poverty line, especially in urban areas, so the children of these families grow up with little to no opportunity to make a successful living. If the government would have a better plan to help these impoverished families stay afloat financially, there would be fewer children born into poverty and more opportunities for children living with only one parent.
The most recent cause of the up rise in the homeless population is the failure of the housing market in California. Over the last two years, worker’s wages have been cut, the unemployment rate reached a twelve year record of over 7.5 percent, and the prices of food and fuel spiked dramatically, as a result a staggering two percent of all residential home loans entered into foreclosure across California, which is pretty bad compared to the nations foreclosure percentage of 1.6%. According to statistics recorded by RealtyTrac, an online seller of foreclosed homes, the rate of foreclosing homes increased by 27% from August 2007 to August 2008. With all these homes being foreclosed, the effects were disheartening. This crash in the housing market put thousands of Californians out on the street, adding to an already increasing homeless population.
A very commonly known reason for homelessness is the effects of widespread drugs in urban communities. In the 1980’s, with the introduction of crack cocaine came a large demand for the drug in inner city areas. The drug mostly affected the African American community in these urban cities, and is thought by many to be one of the most significant reasons for the high percentage of homeless African Americans. Crack cocaine is not the only drug that contributes to the homeless population; other widespread drugs that have affected the homeless community include methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. The effects of these drugs when distributed throughout an inner city often reaches many users who become addicted, thus taking in their money and health which creates a situation in which the users are much more vulnerable to becoming homeless.
It seems as though Californians across the state recognize the homelessness problem and want something done about it, but as far as I can tell not much is being done. With two of the largest homeless populations in the country, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, it is clear that California needs an efficient plan to solve its overgrowing homeless population.
Part II
“You can spend the money on new housing for poor people and the homeless, or you can spend it on a football stadium or a golf course.”
-Jello Biafra
As a nation America has had a homeless problem for over almost a century, but throughout our history, few steps have been made to rid America of this problem. In fact, the last landmark decision made by the government in order to help the homeless and others living under the poverty line was FDR’s New Deal. Since then our government has used some of its budget for plans to benefit the homeless, but in my opinion they have not done nearly enough.
The government’s biggest financial aid plan is the welfare system. The welfare system was built in the 1930’s after the Depression was over, but did not make as much of an affect until after the Great Society legislation of the 1960s, for the first time a person who was not elderly or disabled could receive a living from the American government. Unfortunately this program was somewhat abused until 1996, under the Clinton Administration when congress changed the welfare system from a limitless source of money for anyone who was considered poor to a finite program built to provide short-term financial assistance in order to get jobless American’s just enough money to survive as they find a new job. This decision created a drastic change in the welfare system especially in California. In the 1970’s California had the most generous welfare system in all of America, paying for virtually all food stamps given at the time. Once this welfare reform came into play, a lot of Californians who were coasting on welfare lost their free ride and soon had to find jobs, but with all these underprivileged, undereducated families looking for jobs at the same time, there were a lot of people who couldn’t get jobs which fueled the homeless problem.
Another similar program to welfare is California’s General Assistance or General Relief program (GA/GR). This is a program is not actually run by the state of California, but individually run by each of California’s 58 counties. Each county has its own General Assistance program which is run by its own board of supervisors so the amount given to families who qualify can vary amongst counties as well as the eligibility requirements. Most people who are eligible for General Assistance are also eligible for the Food Stamp program which is aimed at giving the poor a higher dose of daily nutrition.
Besides Welfare, the Food Stamp program, the local General Assistance program, and a few other smaller programs for the homeless, the government spends little money on getting the homeless off the streets. Most programs that help feed and shelter the homeless are run by non-profit organizations, often run by churches and other types of charity. These are the people that are really making a difference in the homeless community; those who spend their own time and money to help those who are less fortunate. If America as a whole, or at least the government, would adopt this type of humanitarianism, you wouldn’t see any starving people in the streets. Unfortunately that idea is not very realistic, what’s worse is it’s actually becoming quite the opposite. With upcoming budget cuts in California, the homeless problem is not about to get any better, but on top of that the federal government is proposing further tax cuts on California. These cuts will mainly affect urban areas and inner cities like Oakland. This is because under the budget proposals offered by both the White House and the U.S. Congress, the city could lose millions of dollars that go to its social programs which help subsidize those living under the poverty line. The mayor of Oakland Jean Quan spoke out about this in late February stating that “With an unemployment rate nearly double that of the nation at 17 percent, the city of Oakland can hardly afford the elimination of programs that helps in the area of economic recovery.”
It seems as though while the community members are doing their part to provide food and shelter to the homeless, the government is going the other way, making more cuts, affecting more homeless citizens. I didn’t realize how much food needs to be distributed to the homeless until I did some volunteer work at the Contra Costa Food Bank in Concord. I spent multiple hours sorting a seemingly endless supply of donated food into separate boxes to be sent to homeless shelters in the area. The warehouse that stored all of this food seemed large enough to keep all the homeless people in the state full for a year, but from what one of the regular workers there told me, all the food I saw was only a days worth, they do that same sorting process every day and ship it out. Then I thought about the fact that there’s another warehouse in Oakland just like this one that does the same thing every day. That is when I really realized how much needs to be done in order to feed our state’s homeless community. These two warehouses should not be doing all the work to feed the homeless in the bay area, there should be equal if not greater participation by the government in order to feed the homeless.
Part III
“Shelter Network’s programs and services are a rainbow in the clouds for homeless children and adults.” -Maya Angelou
There are a lot of steps that could be taken in order to help our homeless population that our government is not willing to take, due to their decisions on how to spend tax money after budget cuts are made. It seems that the homeless issue is never one of enough importance to make a drastic change, but the homeless rate is rising, and that means that eventually it will get to a point where the government can no longer turn its shoulder and changes will have to be made. I don’t consider myself to be an economist by any means, but I do think that California’s government, despite the 300 billion dollars its in debt, could set up a statewide program for more homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the most impoverished areas. While working at the Contra Costa Food Bank I asked my supervisor where all the food we were packing gets sent to, and he told me almost all of it gets sent to churches and other non profit organizations who feed the homeless. If the same donations were taken into a government regulated program which evenly and efficiently distributes all the donated food to the homeless instead of the select organizations that go out of their way to feed the homeless, then homeless people throughout California would be properly fed without much budgetary constraints, as long as the food donation and labor is done voluntarily. Also, if California could adopt government regulated shelters throughout the state and display its effectiveness, that could be the first big move for homeless people in America since the New Deal and take wind across the country causing more states to adopt this plan, thus making a significant impact on homelessness across America.
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