MattCA Politics It seems as though California has been a destination for the residentially challenged for many years. However, since 2016 the state has seen an increase of about 17 percent in the number of homeless veterans. While Barack Obama was in office we as a nation made significant strides in resolving this issue. Obama attacked the issue of homeless veterans by partnering with Veterans Affairs and the Housing and Urban Development department. During 2016 it was announced that the number of homeless veterans was cut by more than 17 percent nation wide.The VA, through the HUD VA- Supportive Housing program, 114,000 veterans have been taken of the street. This program provides health care, temporary housing, and job training. This is an example of what can be done if government resources are directed towards that benefit our programs. Accrording to the United States Department of Defense “27 communities and two states have successfully eradicated veteran homelessness”. While this is great progress, we still have far to go on a local level.
This issue has been addressed in many elections, unfortunately not much has been done about. Many constituents believe that former Governor Jerry Brown did not do enough to solve this problem. Citizen have taken power into their own hands and approved Prop 2 and 63 have worked concurrently to help with homelessness in California. Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Kevin De Leon have worked in tandem to make sure that government funding is directed towards programs like No place Like Home program. With Gavin Newsom being elected as the new Governor of California, there has been some discussion about the topic of veterans homelessness. During Newsom’s time as Mayor of San Francisco he received a lot of media attention in relation to his policies on homelessness. Months after becoming Mayor, Gavin Newsom made the claim that he would eradicate homelessness in San Francisco within 10 years. While he claims that homelessness decreased by 40 percent during his time as Mayor, there was no city record of the cities homeless population the year he took office. Making this clam hard to confirm or deny. Regardless of the truth of that statement, many advocate groups had an issue with how Newsom went about solving the problem. With Gavin Newsom’s support the city of San Francisco passed Prop N in 2002. Due to the increase in drug use and emergency visits from the homeless population, Prop N sought to cut the amount of money the given to the homeless by more than half. In turn, the extra money would be put towards the building of low income housing and shelters. Later coined the “Care Not Cash” program, many constituents and media members looked at this as a very cruel solution to a problem. Essentially Newsom had taken the ability of these people to achieve upward mobility through their own means. They must now rely on the Government even more, hoping that this institutions are properly funded and staffed in order to give the help that these people require. Now Governor, Newsom has taken a similar but slightly different approach. He looks to give land owner tax credits for housing the homeless, as well as businesses the hire these individuals. Another way he looks to address this issue is through our prisons which I found interesting. We know that many homeless individuals fall victim to drug use, this often leads to short prison stints. This is an issue that ties in with our prison system. By increasing the support and services of drug programs in prison we can hopefully lessen the amount of drug use back on the streets. The good news is that California has made some positive steps regarding the issue. The city of Riverside began a program in 2013 that would promised to find a home for every homeless veteran in the county. As of today that have successfully accomplished this task. Using an approach similar to that of Gavin Newsom’s proposals, Riverside started a “Housing First” program to attack the problem. The Housing First program begins with an assessment of mental health as well as treatment for addiction. Many states across the country have taken components of the Housing First program to create their own proposals to end homelessness. One of the main reason Riverside was successful was because they actually received proper funding. Funding needs to be provided to all programs that seek to get our veterans of the street. Unfortunately, it has not been seen as a pressing issue even though this is a nationwide issue. While housing veterans may seem like charity to some, there is actually financial benefit long term for these counties. A report done in Los Angeles County found for every dollar spent in housing for the homeless, the Government saved $1.20 in social services cost. A resolution to the homeless veteran problem is not only the right thing to do, but also cost effective.
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AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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