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The Center Square
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Democrats seek visible progress on homelessness as public patience wears thin
The Los Angeles Times
California bill would give $1,000 a month in short-term guaranteed income to homeless high school seniors
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The Center Square
Senior housing residents walk on a pathway before a news conference in their building announcing that Seattle will invest more than $75 million on affordable-housing units in the next year. Mayor Jenny Durkan says the investment puts the city on target to make available nearly 4,000 new homes by 2022. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Elaine Thompson/ AP Photos
(The Center Square) – A property management company and a non-profit organization are collaborating on a $2 million pilot program offsetting rising rents for low income residents.
The partnership is between HNN Communities and Housing Connector, a nonprofit with a listing platform and other services that helps connect people with homes.
The $2 million was donated towards the program by DevCo, the parent company of HNN Communities
Residents who are eligible for the assistance funding have to reside at any of the 39 properties managed by HNN Communities throughout the state. That means about 21,000 residents within HNN Communities can apply for relief funds if needed.
According to HNN Communities, “over 80% of HNN Communities’ households earn less than 50% of the area median income.” As housing costs throughout Washington state continue to rise, government relief that was being distributed throughout the pandemic has become less available.
This collaboration is meant to continue some of that financial aid to households within HNN Communities who are more likely to be affected by increasing rent.
“We understand that the rising costs of rent can present a challenge for our residents facing financial hardships, which is why it was essential to us to invest in providing immediate support,” President of HNN Communities Alison Dean said in a statement. “Our partnership with Housing Connector allows us to assist residents with tangible, accessible resources, while ensuring the process is fair and professionally managed for all residents.”
HNN Communities claims it bucked the trend over the past two years of rent increases across the Puget Sound region and instead spent over $4.3 million to support residents. The new rental assistance program will help to cover rent payment differentials from August to December 2022.
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The San Diego Union-Tribune
Democrats seek visible progress on homelessness as public patience wears thin
Homeless already was being treated as a crisis in San Diego and California, but the election year may have added more urgency
Homelessness long has been an evolving crisis on the streets of San Diego and in urban areas across California, and it may become a political crisis for some Democratic elected officials at the ballot box.
Recent elections in San Francisco and Los Angeles led to sweeping conclusions that voters have become wary about politicians seeking to reform the criminal justice system, which critics often equate with being soft on crime.
Some of the analysis was overblown, but at the very least what seemed clear is that the public wants results on addressing a homeless situation they consider a public health and safety threat growing out of control.
Mayor Todd Gloria still speaks of compassion for homeless people as he did as a candidate two years ago. But in addition to housing and outreach programs, his administration this year has stepped up police enforcement measures to clear homeless encampments.
County Supervisor Chair Nathan Fletcher has led the board in a series of actions to spend millions of dollars on similar programs — notably on mental health services — aimed at getting homeless people off the street.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has directed $14 billion toward long- and short-term efforts over the past two years to assist homeless people with housing and other services.
But the governor and others understand Californians want to see visible progress — soon. To that end, Newsom last year pledged to help local jurisdictions clear hundreds of homeless encampments. His office said in February the state is on course to clear 1,000 camps by the end of this year.
A month earlier, the governor hammered home that message when he came to San Diego dressed in a T-shirt, cargo pants and a baseball cap to help a crew clean up an encampment alongside Interstate 5 and hold a news conference to discuss his broader plans on homelessness.
To be clear, none of these politicians woke up after the June 7 primary and suddenly realized homelessness is a big public health, safety and image problem for the state and their cities. All have been focused on addressing homelessness and housing for years.
While Newsom and Fletcher should cruise to re-election in November, homelessness is a black eye for the state and region. Gloria does not face voters this year, but there's little doubt his record on homelessness will be a top issue when he does in 2024.
Along with other like-minded officials and advocates, these three contend homelessness largely stems from systemic problems related to the economy, inequality, cost of housing and lack of access to health care — particularly mental health and substance abuse programs.
For all those who are now homeless, there are thousands of other people living on the brink where one stroke of bad luck — illness, job loss or other misfortune — could mean they no longer will have the resources to keep a roof over their heads.
But the familiar refrain that the situation wasn't created overnight and may take a while to resolve seems a tougher sell these days. Patience is running out as everyday residents and civic leaders see — and complain about — open drug use at unsanitary sidewalk camps that sometime require them to walk into the street to avoid.
That public concern has morphed with the overarching worry about the increase in crime.
In the Los Angeles mayoral primary, billionaire developer Rick Caruso gained a spot in the November runoff against Rep. Karen Bass by pledging, among other things, quick action to address homelessness — and the real and perceived ills emanating from it.
That homeless-crime nexus also drove the recall to remove San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin from office on June 7. Boudin faced a well-financed campaign against him, but his criminal justice reforms went too far for many Democrats in the famously permissive city.
However one interprets those elections, there's no mistaking the intense focus to show action on homelessness across the state.
Under Gloria, outreach teams and police offer homeless people services, housing and shelter space when available, but enforce laws against encroaching on sidewalks. The "progressive enforcement" includes a warning, an infraction citation and a misdemeanor citation before an arrest.
Advocates for the homeless say this only forces people without shelter to go elsewhere, sticks them with fines they can't pay and possibly leads to jail time.
While San Diego and other urban areas in California are scrambling to triage the homeless problem, they are being shown up by other cities. Anecdotal observations by locals visiting afar and government data suggest progress on reducing homelessness elsewhere.
"I don’t know enough about the facts behind how they’ve done it, but Philadelphia really does seem to have a handle on homelessness," Lorena Gonzalez said on Twitter while attending an AFL-CIO convention there over the weekend. "They’ve apparently invested in more shelter beds than unsheltered people & an active outreach team. Is this a model or is there more I’m not seeing?"
The former Assembly member and incoming leader of the California Labor Federation seemed to be on to something.
Here's what the Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services says: "About 5,700 are considered to be homeless in the city, which includes about 950 who are unsheltered. Philadelphia has the lowest number of street homeless per capita of any of the largest cities in the US."
By comparison, the recent count in the city of San Diego tallied 4,801 homeless people — 2,494 of whom were unsheltered.
San Francisco Examiner columnist Al Saracevic was in Boston for the NBA Finals, but couldn't help making a civic comparison.
"... In the streets, Boston puts San Francisco to shame ," he wrote. "Crowded restaurants and offices. Beautiful public spaces. And very few homeless people in this city’s vibrant center."
Noting he was no expert on the issue, Saracevic noted local concerns that some homeless people had been pushed out of Boston's core.
On Tuesday, The New York Times published a deep dive about the success in Houston, where the homeless population has been reduced by nearly two-thirds since 2011. Houston has been lauded for its execution of the "housing first" policy, the goal of which is to get people safe, secure and permanent housing as quickly as possible.
"The people living in the encampment would not be consigned to homeless shelters, cited for trespassing or scattered to the winds, but, rather, given a home," according to the Times.
The Times said San Diego reduced its number by 19 percent over that period, and that a city audit in 2020 — before Gloria was elected — said the city was hampered by "a piecemeal approach to housing first and 'ineffective' strategic planning."
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The Los Angeles Times
California bill would give $1,000 a month in short-term guaranteed income to homeless high school seniors
Senate Bill 1341 proposes a monthly, no-strings-attached check to eligible students for five months as they graduate.
Joining a growing tide of guaranteed-income programs across California, a state bill making its way through the Legislature would give $1,000 a month to unhoused high school seniors.
Introduced by state Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), Senate Bill 1341 proposes a monthly, no-strings-attached check to eligible students for five months, from April of a student's senior year until August.
"It's essentially this transitional support to try to disrupt the cycle of homelessness at this age group," Cortese said.
The legislation is a revamp of an earlier bill, also introduced by Cortese, that aimed to give $500 a month to college students from low-income families attending some California State University campuses. However, lawmakers scrapped the idea once they realized the monthly checks would have essentially been deducted from any separate student financial aid.
SB 1341 passed the Senate floor in May and is now being reviewed by Assembly committees on human services and higher education.
The bill would provide enough funding for 15,000 students, which is the number of seniors in public high schools who in the 2020-21 school year were living homeless, defined by the McKinney-Vento Act as lacking "a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence."
Many of these children live in the homes of other families, shelters, motels, cars or public spaces.
Across all public schools in the state, from kindergarten to 12th grade, more than 183,000 students were homeless last school year, according to the California Department of Education.
Black and Latino students were overrepresented; Black students make up 5% of statewide enrollment but accounted for about 7% of homeless students, according to state data, and Latinos composed 74% of homeless students despite being 55% of the overall student population. White students, who make up 22% of statewide enrollment, accounted for about 10% of homeless students.
Lawmakers project the state would spend about $85 million a year to fund the monthly checks, fluctuating along with the number of homeless youths.
Although the funds are intended to assist recent high school graduates with housing, transitioning to college or vocational training, or applying for jobs, the bill allows individuals to decide how to spend the monthly stipends.
"That's both the most radical and also the most effective thing we've seen out of guaranteed income as it's become more mainstream over the last couple of years," Cortese said. "The combination of empowerment and lack of prescriptiveness has been really powerful in terms of outcomes."
After the city of Stockton famously started giving $500 to some of its working-class residents for two years starting in 2019, a study showed that employment among the recipients went up by 12 percentage points.
Since then, other cities and counties in the state have followed suit, including Los Angeles County, which is providing $1,000 for some low-income residents for three years. Compton started giving checks to some of its residents starting in late 2020, and Long Beach is close to offering $500 a month to some single-parent households in the neighborhood with the city's highest poverty rate.
Statewide, expectant mothers or individuals who age out of foster care may be eligible for state-funded guaranteed income.