Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Homelessness ; Out of the Box

A few days ago there was a comprehensive article describing the statistics on the homeless population in San Diego County. In the annual January tally, for this year there were 8,576 homeless people in the county including 1,312 homeless veterans and 2,171 chronically homeless. Granted this sort of count can’t possibly find every homeless person, but it does provide some useful data, although some potentially useful information is not provided by this simple head count. From my perspective
there are certain definite groups among these thousands of unfortunate homeless individuals, and perhaps it would be informative to know how many are in these subgroups, because it would seem to me that the limited resources should be directed to those subgroups that are most likely to be helped.
Three major questions:
1. How many of the 4,990 unsheltered homeless individuals who are living on the street actually desire help? On the night of the tally 630 sheltered beds were available but not utilized, and this was in January.
2. How many of the chronically homeless have some sort of mental illness? An article on 5/19/18 in the Wall Street Journal queried whether or not these mentally ill individuals are worse off now than they were in the days that they were housed in asylums. This is a good question, as it is hard to imagine that they would not be better off with a warm bed, regular meals, and medication to treat their mental illness in a controlled environment. To me the likelihood of helping these unfortunate individuals with the present laws and ground rules is quite low.
3. What percentage of the homeless have some sort of addiction, whether it be to alcohol or to drugs? To me trying to treat these individuals without completely changing their environment is futile. Converting them from the “non-sheltered group” to the “sheltered group” by providing them with a “roof” over their head looks good on paper, but again, to me, the chance for a successful escape from their addiction has to be quite low, as long as they remain in the same environment . . . close to their “friends” who can help them get the drugs and/or the alcohol.
To me, the group that we as a community should be directing our attention to are those with an addiction, and the only way to help them is to get them away from their present environment. We need to think out of the box. It makes no sense to me to continue to bring the necessary services to where these addicted individuals reside. Move them away from their present environment. Move them out to a rural area – the more rural and hence the more isolated the better. The necessary services can make the trip to the outlying areas.
As an example of “thinking out of the box,” read the following and decide whether or not this soon to be closed facility could be better used to house and simultaneously effectively isolate these addicted individuals.
A recent article in our local paper annotated the closing of a rural Juvenile Detention Facility because of both a decrease in usage and because of the deteriorating condition of the facility. Since 2011 there has been a change in juvenile justice with a shift from detention to rehabilitation by steering youths into diversion programs, and since then the juvenile arrest rate has decreased 53%, and the population in juvenile halls has dropped 48% since 2012. The soon to be closed detention facility has a capacity to House 125 boys, and recently has seen its population drop to between 60-70 boys.
One of the reasons noted as to why this location was not desirable for youth offenders was its inaccessibility for the parents, as it is in the middle of nowhere with no public transportation. This would be perfect for these addicted homeless individuals as they could not easily access drugs, alcohol, or “ friends.”

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