SLO’s homeless crisis is getting worse – even as federal spending rises
Four out of five homeless people in San Luis Obispo County have been sleeping on the streets or in cars, encampments or abandoned buildings — or what the federal government calls “other places not suitable for human habitation.”
The figure is up from two years ago, when 69% lived in such conditions.
The area, like so many in California, is being battered by surging housing costs and wages that won’t keep up. And Washington, D.C.’s efforts to provide more help and funding are seen as insufficient.
“There is not enough housing for the income levels people are earning,” said Janna Nichols, executive director of the 5Cities Homeless Coalition in Grover Beach.
Federal lawmakers say they understand the gravity of the problem. The issue got unusually unified political support this year as House and Senate budget-writers quietly agreed on more spending. Advocacy groups dealing daily with the homeless generally praise the effort.
Congress wants to spend about $2.8 billion in fiscal 2020, the 12 month period that began Oct. 1, on homeless assistance grants, the major funding source to help the homeless. Final votes are likely sometime this month on what would be about a 6% increase over last year.
Virtually all that money, though, is to maintain and improve previously funded projects.
That’s barely enough to keep pace, particularly in high-cost California. “The cost of building is so high, the level the funding is not sufficient,” said John Parvensky, acting executive director at the National Coalition for the Homeless.
He noted that the 6% increase would not be enough to cover rising rents in many places.
While it’s critical to spend to keep already-housed people in place, the current funding level makes it difficult to help people now on the streets or in emergency shelters, Parvensky said.
The bottom line is that current HUD funding is very effective for those who are targeted — which are generally some of the more vulnerable and chronically homeless people and some families,” said Michael Ullman, National Homeless Information Project coordinator.
But stopping the flow of new people into homelessness, and the streets or shelters, is much more complex, he said. Ullman urged a “complete rethinking of the problem and the definition of homelessness.”
“The white upper class policy maker cannot fathom living 10 or 50 to a large room — maybe it’s not great, but it’s not homeless. And two-thirds of the people currently defined as homeless live in congregate housing,” he said.
Those who deal with the problems day after day are concerned.
“My hope is that some in our delegation understand the crisis in California, that the numbers are increasing dramatically in the West Coast in general,” said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness.
“But,” he said, “Congress overall gets reports from HUD and the National Alliance to End Homelessness that overall the numbers are down, except on the West Coast, but many advocates don’t believe it for a second.”
The San Luis Obispo area had been making progress.
From 2013 to 2017, the number of unsheltered persons decreased significantly. But the average renter’s income has not kept up with rent increases in the county, and the loss of redevelopment funds from the state has had an impact on the ability to get new low-income housing.
More recently, 29% of unsheltered homeless people reported living on the street. Another 26% said they were sleeping in their vehicles, and 22% in encampment areas. Ninety-eight percent of youth and young adults live in such unsheltered conditions.
“We need emergency shelters,” Nichols said.
But no single solution will fix the problem, she added.
“This is both a humanitarian and economic issue — both for those seeking housing and for the economic well-being of the broader community,” Nichols said. “We need housing coupled with supportive services and case management; and we need shelter with supportive services to help people stay safe, healthy, and begin to work on housing barriers.”
California’s homeless population
The problem is pervasive in the state. In Los Angeles, officials are able to provide housing for an estimated 150 new people a day. But an estimated 180 are coming into the system every day.
“Too often, folks are falling into homelessness faster than we can house them,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told Congress earlier this year.
Among major U. S. population centers, the city of Fresno, Fresno County and Madera County had the highest percentage of homeless people who were unsheltered in the nation – 88.7 percent, according to HUD data. The next four highest percentages were also in California.
The national average for people in unsheltered places, such as a street or abandoned buildings, was 35 percent.
What’s needed, advocates say, is political pressure.
“We know this approach works and our country has seen the success of these efforts,” Joseph Horiye, Western region program vice president at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which promotes community programs, told Congress of current programs.
“We know that progress can be made when the federal government provides adequate resources.”
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