Fresno leaders say homelessness can’t be solved by more housing
A number of Fresno’s city leaders said Tuesday that California’s officials are pushing a false narrative when talking about the state’s housing crisis, saying it allows them to ignore what are real solutions to homelessness in the state.
Councilmembers Garry Bredefeld and Mike Karbassi convened a joint news conference to call state leaders to fund mental health facilities and to repeal Propositions 47 and 57 as well as Assembly Bill 109 — initiatives and legislation that reduced the sentencing and punishment of certain crimes.
People with mental illness and others who won’t conform to society make up a large number of the people living on the street and along highway embankments, the elected officials said. Police need a way to deal with those who won’t accept help, according to Bredefeld.
“It’s not about arrest(ing) your way out of it. It’s about accountability,” Bredefeld said. “You should not be allowed to sleep on the street. That shouldn’t be a First Amendment right. That’s inhumane. We ought to set the standard a lot higher for ourselves.”
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the September 2018 case of Martin v. City of Boise ruled if there’s no shelter option, the government cannot criminalize homeless people for sleeping in public on the “false premise” that they had a choice in the matter. That ruling has made it so agencies around the state could not impose anti-camping efforts, which some say allows homeless encampments.
Advocates for the homeless say the ruling is common sense, and any attempt to overturn it is callous.
The state’s housing crisis is a major factor is Fresno’s homeless problem, according to Dez Martinez, a homeless advocate. When people get out of a drug addiction program, for example, they need an affordable place to stay.
“Homelessness has everything to do with affordable housing,” she said. “We have a lack of resources. This is a failure of our city and city leaders for 10 years.”
Police response
Alcohol or drug addiction and mental health problems are at the root of the homelessness problem, according to Fresno Police Chief Andy Hall. He said a third of all calls for service in Fresno are related to mental illness.
This year, officers with the department’s Homeless Task Force have spoken to more than 5,700 homeless people, many of whom had been approached by police multiple times. Less than 1% of those people accept help offered by police, according to Hall.
“Police departments throughout the state are being overwhelmed by a crisis,” he said. “This crisis is straining the resources of the city and our police department. We have wrapped this crisis in a word called ‘homelessness.’ ”
During the news conference Tuesday at City Hall, the chief played video of an arrest police made Monday near E and Fresno streets as an example of what police see daily. A man who police said has mental illness stabbed a woman and then a good Samaritan who stepped in before officers arrived.
The suspect, identified Tuesday by police as Arturo Acosta, is told repeatedly in the video to put down his knife before he starts cutting himself. Officers fire bean bags at him and then use a stun gun to force the man to the ground.
Acosta, 28, is a known Pleasant Street Bulldog gang member who was recently released on parole for home invasion robbery. He was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
There about 1,100 people living on the streets or in a shelter in the city of Fresno, according to most recent annual tally.
Mental institutions
Karbassi said building homes is a component of solving homelessness, but the state needs to make mental health the priority. The state funds outpatient care but should launch into in-patient care, where the mentally ill would be institutionalized.
“We’re talking about accredited, accountable institutions that would be statewide, under state mandate to be able to function,” he said. “We need to do something we aren’t doing now. The problem is getting worse.”
People living on the streets can also be a burden on business owners, the elected officials said.
Whether it’s cleaning up human waste from the sides of a building or shooing panhandlers, police should be given the option to arrest people when necessary, according to Jennifer Large, who owns Beautiwood Unfinished Furniture in north Fresno.
“I want to help people. I think the best way is to reach out and help them,” she said. “But, on the other hand, as a business owner, I need to run a business daily to support my family. ... We see the same people show up every single day, so they are not accepting help.”
California voters could decide next year whether to create new county courts to steer homeless people to mental health and drug addiction treatment programs.
The proposal comes as California is in the throes of a worsening homeless crisis, with a growing number of people living on the streets in cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. But it has met quick criticism from some, who argued it would take away power from counties to decide how best to serve people and would effectively institutionalize people.
“The initiative is an embarrassing attempt to make California more visually appealing to those who have no interest or knowledge in addressing the root causes of what is happening to people in our state and country,” the Western Center on Law and Poverty, a nonprofit legal organization, said in a statement.
This story was originally published October 15, 2019 at 3:04 PM.
