Posted on 09/16/2019 8:39:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The television images of homeless adults, tent cities, discarded drug paraphernalia, and filthy conditions in America’s urban landscapes are shocking. The homeless people in these scenes didn’t grow up saying, “I can’t wait to become an addict and live on the street.” Clearly, several things went wrong over the course of their lives.
For many living on the streets, the path to homelessness started early, with childhood trauma and adverse experiences.
For example, in Santa Clara County, just south of San Francisco, 78 percent of homeless adults grew up in a household with a person with drug or alcohol dependence; 65 percent endured psychological abuse as a child; and 37.5 percent experienced homelessness as children.
Considering that Federal Department of Education statistics show that nearly 1.4 million students attending public school experienced homelessness in the 2016-17 school year, 27 percent more children than in 2010-11, the alarm bells should be ringing everywhere.
This Administration needs to address the rising numbers of “street homeless,” but even greater attention needs to be directed toward helping homeless children because the consequences of their homelessness are profound.
By the time a homeless child is eight years old, one in three has a major mental disorder.
Homeless children have twice the rate of learning disabilities and three times the rate of emotional and behavioral problems. This makes them twice as likely to repeat a grade compared to non-homeless children.
Homeless children are sick at twice the rate of other children and have five times the rate of diarrhea and stomach problems – not surprising given that homeless children are twice as likely to go hungry and half experience anxiety, depression, or withdrawal. Consequently, many homeless children have great difficulty learning in school.
Without appropriate interventions, a homeless child beset with overwhelming challenges easily becomes an addicted, mentally ill, and seemingly unemployable homeless adult.
The rising tide of children facing homelessness today will become a tsunami tomorrow unless we get to the source of the problem.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s one-size-fits-all, faulty-evidence-based policy called “Housing First” is at the eye of this hurricane.
Under Housing First, rolled out under the previous administration with the promise to “end homelessness,” aims to provide the homeless with housing for life, without any accountability, incentives, or requirement to change behavior.
Given that the data that shows that 50+ percent of homeless parents are struggling with addiction, and a similar proportion with mental illness, this policy risks exposing their children to additional trauma, and to poor role modeling.
HUD policy discriminates against families by limiting what constitutes a homeless family. Many family–focused non-profits have been forced to close, while others have had to radically change service models to fit HUD’s no-sobriety, no-accountability requirements.
Despite a $1 billion increase in HUD homelessness spending since the 2010-11 school year, homelessness among children is increasing and shows no signs of abating. HUD’s Housing First policy has ignored what is in the best interest of children and isn’t helping adults either, with homelessness at crisis levels.
HUD argues that this crisis is due to a lack of affordable housing and over-regulation, taking the focus off the failures of its decade-long, ‘ending homelessness’ policy.
In his 2020 budget, President Trump focused on reforming ineffective policymaking at federal agencies, proposing to hire evaluation officers to bolster evidence-based policymaking.
President Trump now needs to force HUD to change direction completely and return Housing First to its original purpose as a targeted solution for the severely-addicted and mentally ill homeless.
In addition, he should request that the White House Council of Economic Advisors evaluate HUD’s research claiming that Housing First is evidence-based for all populations, including families, children, and youth.
He should force HUD to adopt the Department of Education’s definition of homelessness, accounting for children staying in motels and sleeping on people’s floors or couches, so that the growing number of homeless women and children are not hidden from public policy or funding.
He should designate the Administration for Children and Families within the Department of Health and Human Services as the agency responsible for homeless families. ACF is much more in tune with the needs of homeless families and children.
And Mr. Trump should create partnerships with churches, the private sector and philanthropy to support the many programs across the country that have demonstrated results in creating self-sufficient individuals and families.
Continuing to support failed homeless policy will guarantee that the homeless crisis metastasizes into a national catastrophe.
Mr. President, please stop the hemorrhaging now.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Lance Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute.
Michele Steeb is the former CEO of Saint John’s Program for Real Change, a Sacramento, California-based residential program that supports women and children struggling with homelessness, mental illness and addiction to become self-sustaining. Due to their sobriety accountability and work requirements, Saint John’s has lost millions of dollars in public funding. The Program has successfully served over 30,000 women and children since its inception in 1985.
John & Ken mentioned last week that a dangerous area of a local wash had to be cleared out of homeless before the rainy season - an entire army of social services descended on the area and set up desks and booths- for jobs, for shelters, for mental health issues, for drug addiction issues, welfare issues - out of the 80 people there only TWO accepted services, the rest refused - and were told to “move along.”
Therein lies the problem: many don’t want services; living on the streets is a preferred lifestyle.
The focus is always on the homeless, homeless, homeless!
What about the rest of us who get up and go to work each morning hoping for a quiet, peaceful life - and have to step over homeless while we go about our business? Or avoid aggressive panhandling and catcalling as my family had to endure recently?
What about our children just trying to get to school who have to pass homeless urinating, defecating or shooting up in full view in the streets (as I saw in San Francisco recently?).
What about OUR rights? The pols and media never mention this, we’re expected to tolerate it as those with “less privilege” or those who are “less fortunate.”
Frankly, I’m sick of it.
California is about to enact statewide rent control. That’ll just destroy the market for new homes and apartments on the supply side. Less housing will necessarily mean more homelessness.
WTF is going through these peoples’ minds? Not much, from what I can see.
There was an incredibly good editorial in the New York Times a couple of months ago. it pointed out how New York City’s method of getting people into treatment centers to begin drug and alcohol treatment is critical. This is completely opposite LA’s approach to get people into housing before any treatment.
As an LA native, I see first hand the depravity of LA’s approach ... it demeans with the person needing treatment and the general public at the same time.
Where is “reopen the psych wards and insane asylums?”
A local shopkeeper and I got into an interesting conversation. He told me that when Singapore achieved full independence in 1965 that 10% of the population was addicted to opium based drugs. Today 10% of the population is millionaires and drug addiction is nearly nil.
They achieved that phenomenal turnaround with two tools, namely (a)hanging the traffickers and (b)exiling the addicts when they failed rehab for the third time.
While I was familiar with tool (a), he told me the average number of traffickers in a year who hanged and asked me to compare it to the average number of drug related murders in a similar sized city in the USA. As a percentage, it was in the single digits.
So I asked him about tool (b) with which I was less familiar. He said Singapore had a number of smaller islands off shore where the three strike exiles were sent. Surprisingly, a substantial minority of them got clean in an environment where they were no longer able to get drugs and could apply for readmission to mainstream society. The rest had so much of their day occupied with basic survival or trying to find or make substitutes for their drugs or booze that they met their inevitable end a little sooner than the would have in mainstream society.
IOW, living only with their own kind had a way of focusing them to see the end result of their lifestyle and either make the necessary changes or get to their sorry destination sooner.
We could do the same thing, if we had the will.
And that something is grow their bureaucracy, add useless employees, and justify their existence. It is most assuredly NOT to solve the problem.
Free shipping containers.
None of those suggestions is of a complete radical overhaul and redirection nature. They all seem to be small adjustments at the margin. In other words, completely useless.
The Dems shut the nuthouses down. We’ve tried their experiment for 60 years. Time to say TIME!! YOU FAILED and build new nuthouses.
President Trump should lead the world in Making Space Clean Again. If the earth is warming this space junk cannot be helping...this junk traps heaven only knows what sort of gasses. The IPCC and all other Climate Change enthusiasts should think beyond the popular bromides and look at the trash man has left in space....it is one BIG MESS man is burying life as we know it with unintended consequences from space trash!
Santa Clara, you have a moral, lifestyle and lack of responsibility issue. Until you correct this there will be no change. The Libs laugh at Conservatives and their lifestyle, well...…...
Funny how the homeless were a crisis during Bush’s tenure, totally disappeared during Obama’s period, only to return during Trump’s term. Funny how that works, huh, media?
“It’s a real tragedy. I knew some people who adopted the child of two schizophrenic homeless people. By 14 the child was no question seriously Schizophrenic. Which if you know something about Schizophrenia, teenage Schizophrenia is a pretty terrible sign in regard to prognosis.”
Then, throw in high level of drug abuse and alcoholism by the birth mother for a really dangerous and explosive teenager.
Add a parade of loser “abusive fathers” to the child growing up, you have a dangerous youth to his/her family and to themselves.
“Call this a crazy idea if you want, but if you have a job and still can’t afford to pay for housing you might want to consider looking for a job in a place where you can afford to live.”
Or commute daily or weekly by sharing a room with someone. Many of our parents born before or after the depression did that at first.
Disgusting that the liberal problem they created becomes the conservative problem. Everything is “f” Trump until they want something. I would raise every single DNC sh*thole camp in the country but I digress,that’s exactly what the left wants us to do. They will use that to pivot the whole “crisis” onto Trump and GOP.
I agree.
Um.... Best economy on 50 years...
What it this? made up news trying to create a storyhere none exists?
What about Nazi Pelosi’s crap-filled district? That didn’t just happen last year.
Um.... Best economy on 50 years...
What it this? made up news trying to create a storyhere none exists?
What about Nazi Pelosi’s crap-filled district? That didn’t just happen last year.
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