The League of California Cities is taking unprecedented steps in response to an alarming increase in the state’s homeless population. Its board of directors approved the formation of a first-ever standing joint task force with the California State Association of Counties. This group of local elected officials and city and county staff is slated to meet for the first time during fall 2016 to discuss policy related to addressing homelessness.
League Executive Director Chris McKenzie says that because cities are responsible for land use and policing within their borders and counties are responsible for social services, cooperation between local governments is critically important if we are to find regional solutions to the crisis.
“The League is committed to advocating for state and federal funding and policy tools that cities desperately need to address the crisis of homelessness,” says McKenzie. “It’s our hope that the task force will also serve as a model for the kind of collaboration needed to aid a homeless population — collaboration that’s not fixated on political boundaries.
The challenge ahead is daunting. The January 2015 federal Point-in-Time count found that homelessness in California increased 1.6 percent from 2014–2015, making it one of only 17 states to see an increase in the number of men, women and children experiencing homelessness. Statewide 115,738 Californians were counted as homeless. Of those counted, 73,699 people were unsheltered — by far the largest such population in the nation. This marks a disturbing reversal of the 2007–2015 trend, which had seen a 16.7 percent drop in the state’s homeless population.
State of California Takes Action
No Place Like Home calls for the state to sell $2 billion in bonds to construct permanent supportive housing for people with mental illness who experience chronic homelessness. These people typically need the most assistance and represent the most difficult and costly cases. The bonds would be paid back with revenues from Prop. 63 (2004), the Mental Health Services Act, which is funded by the so-called “millionaire’s tax.”
The 2016–17 state budget and trailer bills:
- Include $20 million in law enforcement grants to increase positive outcomes with high-risk populations, including homeless people;
- Establish an Emergency Solutions Grant Program, allocated as grants to qualified sub-recipients to engage homeless people and families living on the street, operate homeless shelters, rapidly rehouse homeless individuals and families and prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless;
- Repeal the Maximum Family Grant and increase the Maximum Aid Payment for CalWORKs;
- Establish the Bringing Families Home pilot project to provide housing resources to families whose children had been placed in foster care due to homelessness — to reunite families;
- Repeal the once-in-a-lifetime ban for the Homeless Assistance Program;
- Expand eligibility and increase rates for Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care; and
- Establish a Housing and Disability Income Advocacy Program that will assist homeless individuals in applying for disability benefits.
The cost of inaction would be still greater. A six-year study of Santa Clara County found that the most expensive 10 percent of the homeless population costs an average of $67,000 each per year — compared to $19,000 per year when housed.
To read more of Cory Golden's article in Western City Magazine, please click here.
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