sitting on the sidelines

I attended a conference on homelessness and the law this past Friday.  The focus of the conference was on criminalization of the homeless, and on homeless veterans, and I also attended a breakout session at lunch regarding homeless youth and families.  What follows is my response, inaccurate and incomplete as it is.

I was already familiar with a few organizations that worked specifically on ensuring education and other services to homeless youth-some with families and some unaccompanied.  And I knew of the McKinney Vento Act, which mandates things like enrolling a child even if they don't have prior school records, allowing homeless kids to continue to attend their school of origin where possible, etc.  There are multiple nation-wide organizations dedicated to serving homeless youth. 

But it had not occurred to me to ask the most obvious question.  What do we owe these children?  Is it so acceptable to see such vulnerable members of our society scrapping for food, a place to sleep, safety, and belonging, that we see their existence as de facto?

I realize that there have always been, and always will be, runaways.  There are homeless families too, at least during times of war and upheaval, the Great Depression, or times of tremendous urban migration.  This is not a new phenomenon.  Like generations before us, we struggle with the moral and practical considerations of the problem.  There is not an easy answer.

The question is larger than children, of course. Aside from the moral question, the pragmatic issue of how street people with no other place to sleep or defecate affect CBD's and merchants demands response.  Criminalization of the homeless via sit/lie laws does not rid us of them.  They have no place to go.  

I understand the disinclination to give a handout to someone able to provide for themselves.  Our sense of justice is offended by such demands.  But if the concern is with the impact with our collective purse strings, then we are fooling ourselves.  It costs more in police and public services staff, emergency medical services and related costs to deal with people living on the streets than it would to provide some level of housing and related services.

I'm told that common causes of homelessness include mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, job loss, and abusive home situations.  The response required depends in part on the underlying issue.

For one who has lost a job, it often starts a downward spiral that the individual involved cannot reverse without assistance.  If you don't have the funds for a home, or even a hotel room, it's hard to keep a cell phone.  Without a cell phone, it is very hard to arrange interviews.  With no alarm clock, it's hard to be on time for interviews, for work, to catch the bus.  And once homeless, and having self designated as such, it is a wound on the psyche not easily healed. The very label of homeless translates into ‘formerly homeless’ and is perceived by society as some character flaw or weakness that is at risk of resurfacing again in the future.  It forecloses opportunities once applied. Confidence is important in job searches, both in the ability to launch one, and in the strength to withstand the inevitable rejections that come with most job searches.

For one with mental illness, addiction, or both, something more is needed than a secure room and a phone.  Ongoing services are more essential to this population.  For some, the only answer is permanent supportive housing, preferably with mental and social services delivered on site.  Many of this group are especially vulnerable due to unaddressed health issues.

Sit/lie laws, anti-camping statutes and policies that direct police and public works departments to effect sweeps of parks, downtown areas, heavily touristed areas-these criminalize behavior that human beings must engage in.  Sleeping, eating, defecating, sitting- what these have in common is that all of us do them. We must do them to survive.

Once arrested, the street person is engaged with the criminal justice system and a cycle initiated that is difficult to break.  Citations mount because of course they can’t pay them, and eventually warrants issue.  It is not uncommon for a homeless person to fail to appear at court hearings, adding one more straw to the camel’s back.  Outstanding warrants contribute to unemployability. Being picked up for a warrant usually means time spent in jail due to inability to post bail, an average of 15 days.  This results in loss of any job a person has managed to get.  Usually by the time someone becomes homeless, they have already tapped out all the personal favors available to them, so who are they to call when they need bail money?

Shelters are perhaps a necessary component of emergent response, but they are not a solution.  Families are separated in shelters, the children of addicts are prohibited entry because of their parents' issues, and unaccompanied youth are particularly vulnerable.  Lack of funding and lack of oversight mean that some shelters lack beds, secure space to store belongings, toilet paper for the bathroom, lack of warm water and soap, safe drinking water, and of course no place for a child to do their homework.

Rapid rehousing may work for those down on their luck, between jobs.  For those who have been sucked into the vortex of life on the streets for some period of time, it may be that something in between is needed.

Funding for such an array of responses is hard to come by.  It is easier to get funding for police, jails and emergency services, whether via a government program or by local support of a local initiative.  But let us not kid ourselves.  In not funding housing, we have simply shifted the cost to our police, our jails, our emergency rooms.  It will not go away on its own.

Often people think that if they provide services, it will attract more street people from other places.  Livermore just passed an anti-camping ordinance in response to a perceived threat from homeless people moving there from Oakland.  The facts do not support this.  Most of our homeless are people who were formerly housed in the community in which they now wander the streets. 

To a large degree, the path to homelessness begins at poverty.  From loss of home, to engagement with the criminal justice system, a record, and foreclosed choices for their future.  Are we not de facto punishing the homeless for being too poor to have a home?

I confess to feeling a bit skeptical about the earnestness of those attending the conference.  Whether it's aid to third world countries, saving the trees or protecting the Great Barrier Reef, it seems never to fail that an attitude of one-ups-manship in do-gooding surfaces after a time, and it's hard to tell if they really want to solve a problem out of which the participants gain so much personal self worth.  But disdain and criticism are cheap substitutes for stepping up and doing something about a very real issue.  It's easy to critique and so much harder to step up on the stage of public action myself.

It is said that the poor will always be with us.  The question for us is what our response will be, individually and collectively.