Siskiyou, Yreka

California needs to change its homelessness policies, not spend more money

by Jay A. Martin Views: 48

by CalMatters, CalMatters Network
November 6, 2023

The homelessness conversation by California Voices features authors involved with the issue to help Californians grasp the solutions and areas of consensus. Read more voices on homelessness.

Guest Commentary written by

Brian Jones

State Sen. Brian W. Jones is the Senate Minority Leader and represents the 40th Senate District.

California’s homeless crisis has plagued the state for years, and despite throwing a staggering amount of money trying to solve it, the problem is only getting worse.

In 2018, California had about 130,000 homeless individuals. Today, that number is over 170,000. That amounts to a more than 30% increase. During those same five years, Democrat lawmakers and the governor spent $20 billion trying – and failing – to address this crisis. If money isn’t a problem, what is?

Homeless people face harsh, dangerous and inhumane conditions living on the street. In 2021, 5,000 homeless people died on the streets in California. They are 16 times more likely to die suddenly than the general population, according to UC San Francisco. They are also more likely to be a victim of crime. San Diego County data shows that homeless people were 19 times more likely to be murdered and 12 times more likely to be assaulted compared to the housed population.

It’s important to remember the humanity aspect of the crisis. Those on the street are someone’s mother, father, brother, sister, daughter and son. They had a life before becoming homeless. Unfortunate circumstances – loss of employment, mental health, substance addiction, grief or something else – led them to this tragic situation.

Tents and deplorable conditions are becoming increasingly common throughout California. Encampments line nearly every block in some areas. Children are being exposed to open drug use and other dangerous criminal activity. Californians pay the highest cost of living in the continental U.S. – they should not have to jump over used drug needles in their parks or be afraid to walk down their street.

Clearly, the current approach is not working. It’s time to shift the focus from merely throwing money at the problem to implementing compassionate and effective policy changes that focus on accountability.

It’s not that financial resources are unimportant in tackling the homeless crisis, but it’s time to realize that the problem cannot be solved by money alone. Pouring billions into the issue without a well-thought strategy is like trying to douse a fire with a never-ending supply of gasoline.

In the long term, California needs to build more housing and mental health facilities and needs to train and educate more people to provide services at those facilities. Last year, when the state had a $100 billion surplus, California Senate Republicans proposed using 10% of it – $10 billion – to expand our mental health infrastructure. Unfortunately, this proposal was rejected by Democrat lawmakers. 

Despite the deficit shift in budget health, I’m confident the state has funding for this infrastructure in our general fund budget, which is over $200 billion annually.

Learn more about legislators mentioned in this story

Brian Jones

R

Brian Jones

State Senate, District 40 (San Diego)

Expand for more about this legislator



R

Brian Jones

State Senate, District 40 (San Diego)

Time in office

2018—present

Background

Appointed Councilmember / Businessman

Contact


Email Legislator

How he voted 2021-2022

Liberal
Conservative

District 40 Demographics

Voter Registration

Dem

35%

GOP

34%

No party

24%

Campaign Contributions

Sen. Brian Jones has taken at least
$555,000
from the Finance, Insurance & Real Estate
sector since he was elected to the legislature. That represents
13%
of his total campaign contributions.


Learn More

In the short term, we need to restore safety, sanitation and quality of life by compassionately clearing the encampments that have sprung up across the state. Many of the people within them are in obvious states of distress. Leaving them to live (and die) on the streets is inhumane, unhealthy and often dangerous – for both the people living in encampments and those in the neighborhoods around them.

What does “compassionately clearing encampments” mean? Our goal is not to criminalize homelessness but to lift them off the streets through an approach that connects them with desperately needed services.

We are already seeing local governments implement measures to do this. Recently, the San Diego City Council passed the Unsafe Camping Ordinance. The ordinance prohibits homeless encampments in all public spaces, including schools and parks, if shelter beds are available. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is exploring options to take the ordinance county-wide. Los Angeles and Sacramento also passed measures aimed at clearing these inhumane encampments.

It’s past time we implement a similar policy statewide. Tents are everywhere. No community is immune, and this crisis needs a statewide solution.

Last year, I introduced the bipartisan Senate Bill 31 to prohibit encampments near sensitive areas around schools, parks, libraries and daycare centers and connect impacted homeless people with treatment and services.

Unfortunately, the measure was shot down by liberal Democrat lawmakers on the Senate Public Safety Committee. Interestingly, these lawmakers did not vote against the measure, they simply refused to cast a vote at all, likely in fear of backlash for once again failing to tackle the homeless crisis. 

I am not giving up and will continue to push for a statewide policy to compassionately clear these encampments.

As we explore new approaches to the homelessness crisis, it’s important to reflect on what failed in the past and why. Thanks to California Senate Republicans’ demands for accountability, we may finally get some answers to a big question: What happened to the billions of dollars spent on homelessness? This year, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee authorized an audit on homelessness spending with bipartisan support. We cannot keep repeating the same failed, expensive mistakes of the past.

I’m renewing my calls for Capitol Democrats to work in a bipartisan manner, act on homeless encampments and focus on the safety and wellbeing of the most vulnerable in our communities. The current statewide approach to homelessness is clearly failing and Californians are tired of it. It’s time for all elected officials to prioritize compassion and safety over political gamesmanship. We will not give up on the fight to protect our communities and compassionately clear encampments.

Both sides agree that we cannot allow the homelessness crisis in California to continue. The state must take a new approach to fix California. We can and we must do better.

Avatar photo
Author: Jay A. Martin"Never underestimate the impact of a single voice seeking the truth, sometimes you find the story, sometimes the story finds you...and occasionally, it trips you on the way out the door. - Jay Martin"

One Comment

  1. The Native American
    November 18, 2023 at 8:51 am  ·  Reply

    “California Senate Republicans proposed using 10% of it – $10 billion – to expand our mental health infrastructure. Unfortunately, this proposal was rejected by Democrat lawmakers.”

    There was definitely something in that proposal that Democrats didn’t like. Be it the prohibitive costs that could strain the budget, conflict of interests (oh my contact does this and we can pay them that), or some other motive. And let’s say for argument sake that IF Democrats did approve their proposal, and the project failed, Republicans would have blamed the failed issue on Democrats, so it’s a lose lose scenario regardless.

    I am too old for these games. Republicans are just trying to save face so they can say “Hey! We tried doing something about this issue! But Democrats don’t want to work with us!”. This reminds me of the media/conservatives trying to negatively spin the truth when the governor rejected a cap for insulin, but no one understood why, thus making it an incited political issue. It was a smart move for the governor to reject the insulin cap to make it accessible freely and available for everyone (under state administration) without having to increase insurance premiums for everyone. How is having available access to insulin to near $0 cost while eliminating increased premium costs for everyone a bad thing?

    On a side note, most people don’t understand that when a current president/administration takes hold of office, they inherit the preceding administration’s economy: Since Trump inherited the fixed spending/budget from Obama and his administration, Trump could have made himself look even better by not spending and tax cutting like a madman, hence everyone currently suffering from his policies and spending under Biden and Biden being blamed for everything in this economy. If people can’t believe that it took Obama nearly 2 presidential terms to undo the mess from Bush, then we are truly done for. I am mentioning this as people tend to blame their frustrations on crime, homelessness and the economy on current administrations that have little or no control from a prior administration’s management.

    Being homeless is already horrible, but also being used a political fodder? Sighs.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*