02/02/2023
Transparency needed for resources allocated for homelessness
By Lang Martinez
Transparency
As a person who has struggled with homelessness and being a former addict living on the streets, I’ve been active for the last four years as a homeless advocate in Ventura County. We don’t always recognize how a blanket of homeless resources are often misdirected. The public should understand how the most visible people who are unhoused are unable to accept the wealth of outreach and services being offered. Being homeless and being a vagrant are two different sets of problems. They should be treated as such so that resources can be distributed appropriately.
I have an anecdotal opinion about this subject. One example is the government’s Housing First Model. Statistics have already proven that the model has only a 30% success rate for sustaining a person into a permanent housing solution. Regardless of whether a person is experiencing an unhoused situation or if they are living a life of addiction on our streets, the public needs to start questioning how resources are being allocated to reduce the overall impacts homelessness and vagrancy are having on taxpayers. The time has come for a public audit of how the millions of dollars being spent is not making a change for the public good. In my estimation, the funds being allocated to address homelessness lack public scrutiny and transparency.
Another example that begs for better governance is the statewide funding allocated during the pandemic. The state issued millions of dollars for the emergency program Project Room Key. Statistics showed that Los Angeles County had 68,000 homeless individuals with an emergency allocation to house 15,000 people immediately. Studies have come back to show that less than 6,000 people were housed with this emergency funding. I consider this a failure and an indication of how funds are being misused and are not addressing the difference between homelessness and vagrancy. I’m learning from people on the street that in L.A. and Ventura County, there were many unreported incidents of people who died from an overdose or su***de while living in a hotel supplied by the Project Room Key program. It’s a sad commentary for a program that was intended to save lives, when in fact the state of some individuals’ mental health and their substance abuse was either ignored or forgotten.
The homeless situation overall is in crisis. Service providers have exposed that in many cases there are no fundamental outcomes towards resolving the problems impacting the public. Communities are stressed and overwhelmed by the negative impacts of chronic vagrancy. Encampments, trash and unlawful behavior have now become normal, yet remain unacceptable. Federal and state governments continue to allocate millions of dollars into cities, yet nothing is changing. Studies show that a majority of the homeless population in California are refusing or unable to overcome their unhoused situation. Whether it’s addiction, mental health or a combination of both, services today should be focused on aggressive treatment practices and relieving law enforcement and emergency medical responders from having to redundantly care for chronic vagrancy issues.
The public has a right to understand how complex homeless issues are impacting funding initiatives and do not always provide significant changes for the homeless population. The public needs to start asking harder questions directed at funding and programs that use the Housing First model and the results of Project Room Key. The public needs more transparency because finding solutions that work are truly the public’s responsibility. Most if not all homeless services are free. However, we are not seeing any significant return on the public investment to say outcomes are working.
I’m asking the public to start getting involved and understand the complexities associated with homelessness. Many government meetings are available on TV or online. There, the public has access to learn how funding is being approved and being proposed to solve homelessness. At a recent Inter Neighborhood Council meeting for the city of Oxnard, a public speaker asked how the Homeless Services Department intends to address the negative impacts of chronic homelessness. The Housing Director responded with vague phrases versus providing concrete solutions. This clearly demonstrates that governments and service providers struggle with addressing chronic vagrancy and should start thinking about treatment-oriented approaches.
In conclusion, I propose for a public meeting where local governments, community stakeholders, service providers and interested citizens can organize a formal ad hoc committee to evaluate local government funding for homeless services. We already know that millions of dollars have been spent on homelessness over the last five years. Local governments and the service provider community must be held accountable for the taxpayer money being spent to address this public crisis. It’s time for the public to get involved.
Lang Martinez is a homeless advocate. He lives in Ventura County.
Transparency needed for resources allocated for homelessness | Opinion | vcreporter.com
https://www.vcreporter.com/opinion/transparency-needed-for-resources-allocated-for-homelessness/article_218a149c-a28f-11ed-bd10-631a9b7149af.html
