Unsheltered Lives Matter

Beginning at the federal level and transecting almost every effort to support people experiencing homelessness, the “housing first” model has become the new mantra for programs serving the homeless and it was this policy shift on the federal and state level that resulted in the roughly $600,000 shortfall in funding now being experienced by Homeless Services Center.

To understand the concept under current governmental and state policy, every dollar that is appropriated for services and programs designed to assist people experiencing homelessness is now “scored” on the basis of how each dollar supports the transition into permanent housing. As applied to HSC, many of its programs are not “housing transitional” in nature but nevertheless have value as a support structure for people experiencing homelessness. Shelter, even very temporary or emergency shelter, can not only be a much-needed respite for people experiencing homelessness, it can serve as a gateway to housing as well. For this reason alone shelter programs must not be abandoned or reduced simply because they do not fit the new policy guidelines.

According to the most recent Homeless Census and Survey, there are approximately 3,500 men, women and children unsheltered in Santa Cruz County every night. Yet in the entire county there are fewer than 700 emergency shelter beds available. Of these, less that 200 can be accurately described as “emergency” short term shelter spaces. This number would be further reduced by the prospective loss of the 50 shelter beds in the Paul Lee Loft. This impending closure, even if only on a temporary basis, is due entirely to the present funding crisis which is directly attributable to the shift in federal policy.

Even the most ambitious housing programs can only hope to successfully house even a fraction of our HUD defined chronically homeless population. In Santa Cruz, the 180/2020 program has housed well in excess of 200 individuals during the past two and a half plus years. A fine thing, but what of the other 95% of people experiencing homelessness who don’t even qualify for such a program and yet have a continuing, nightly need for safe shelter? And here’s my point. The finite financial resources now available under current state and federal policy are being entirely devoted to “housing”. Where are the programs that build shelter space capacity to accommodate the vast majority of our homeless population? This new policy provides no funding for year-round “walk up” shelters; no funding for armory-style shelters; no funding for Sanctuary-style villages; no funding for Safe Spaces Parking Programs for the unsheltered who are vehicularly house; no funding for any places in our community that might provide people experiencing homelessness with the “right to rest” to which they are surely entitled. These options are now being defunded out of hand. And this is precisely why “housing first” models are structurally unsound. They do not, and cannot, differentiate between the varied and distinct needs of individual groups within the homeless community.

There are many men and women of good will who believe that a “housing first” model is the best hope for raising people out of homelessness and poverty and my words here should not be taken to demean those good faith efforts. But in our national rush to house we must not abandon the vision of creating safe shelter space as a fundamental part of a holistic approach to creating positive outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. “Homeless Lives Matter” and not just the very few who find housing through government sponsored programs. In my opinion, the human cost of turning our backs on so many based solely on a shift in governmental policy should be more than our community can in good conscience bear or accept.