Fresno tops the nation in unsheltered people. Can the federal government do more to help?
The Fresno area had a higher percentage last year of homeless people regarded as “unsheltered” — or living in what the government calls places “not suitable for human habitation” — than any major city in the United States.
As more people live in their cars, or abandoned buildings, or on the streets, Fresno officials cite several reasons.
For years, the city significantly cut its homeless population by finding permanent housing, reducing homelessness by almost 60% from 2011 to 2017. It avoided emergency shelters and still does.
Yet the number of people living on the streets and in encampments rose over the last two years. The “solution” became not just building housing, but providing a wider variety of options to those experiencing homelessness.
“You have a systemic breakdown throughout our society. The math is simple: Take domestic violence, add a broken mental health system and addiction to opioids and meth and war and PTSD and lack of affordable housing and prisoner re-entry and it equals homelessness,” said H. Spees, Fresno’s director of strategic initiatives.
Back in Washington, D.C., lawmakers are hard-pressed to keep up.
Congress wants to spend about $2.8 billion in fiscal 2020, the 12 month period that began Oct. 1, on homeless assistance grants, the major funding source to help the homeless. Final votes are likely sometime this month on what would be about a 6% increase over last year.
Virtually all that money, though, is to maintain and improve previously funded projects. That’s barely enough to keep pace, particularly in high-cost California.
“The cost of building is so high, the level the funding is not sufficient,” said John Parvensky, acting executive director at the National Coalition for the Homeless.
He noted that the 6% increase would not be enough to cover rising rents in many places.
While it’s critical to spend to keep already-housed people in place, the current funding level makes it difficult to house people now on the streets or in emergency shelters, Parvensky said.
“The bottom line is that current HUD funding is very effective for those who are targeted — which are generally some of the more vulnerable and chronically homeless people and some families,” said Michael Ullman, National Homeless Information Project coordinator.
But stopping the flow of new people into homelessness, and the streets or shelters, is much more complex, he said. Ullman urged a “complete rethinking of the problem and the definition of homelessness.”
“The white upper class policy maker cannot fathom living 10 or 50 to a large room — maybe it’s not great, but it’s not homeless. And two-thirds of the people currently defined as homeless live in congregate housing,” he said.
Fresno’s homeless challenges
This summer Fresno opened four new triage centers ranging in size from 10 to 50 beds, where people can receive low-barrier housing while getting access to a wide spectrum of services.
But some local advocates blame city officials for not doing enough.
“The city of Fresno has developed a policy on addressing homeless that focuses on punishment more than helpfulness. They actually seem to believe that by being cruel you are being kind. It is the tough love approach and it does not work,” said Mike Rhodes, a local political activist.
Those who deal with the problems day after day want more money spent up front.
“We could dramatically reduce homelessness, improve the lives of the homeless and save taxpayer dollars if we would house the homeless and provide them with the social services they need,” said Rhodes.
“More cruelty will lead to more homelessness. It is time to change direction and help the homeless to live a better and healthier life. “
Spees urges patience, saying the unsheltered number will come down. The triage centers and other services represent more than 240 new beds. People can stay up to 90 days, and so far, Spees estimates 50% to 60% of those using the centers have exited to housing.
But everyone wants more help from Washington. Spees traces the roots of the current funding problem to the 1980s, when HUD’s investment in affordable housing was cut significantly and never restored.
And today, Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness, is concerned that Washington lawmakers are too easily swayed by national numbers that suggest homelessness is under some control.
“Congress overall gets reports from HUD and the National Alliance to End Homelessness that overall the numbers are down, except on the West Coast, but many advocates don’t believe it for a second,” he said.
Among major U. S. cities, Fresno City and County and Madera County had the highest percentage of homeless people who living in such places as a street or abandoned building — 88.7 percent, according to HUD data.
The national average was 35%.
Forty-seven percent of all unsheltered people in the country last year lived in California, the HUD data show. One-third of all homeless unaccompanied youths live in the state.
“Too often, folks are falling into homelessness faster than we can house them,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told Congress earlier this year.
In Sacramento, Erlenbusch estimated 70% of homeless are unsheltered, up from 56% in 2017 and 40% in 2015.
What’s needed, homeless advocates say, is political pressure to put more into existing programs that are working.
“We know this approach works and our country has seen the success of these efforts,” Joseph Horiye, Western region program vice president at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which promotes community programs, told Congress.
“We know that progress can be made when the federal government provides adequate resources.”
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