MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Next up on The world and everything in it: local policy on homelessness.
Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered cities to clear their homeless encampments.
Soon after –
AUDIO: It's a controversial move to drive San Francisco's homeless population out of the city.
– the mayor of San Francisco stepped in. Mayor London Breed announced a tough crackdown on public camping: she offered bus tickets when the city's emergency shelters were full.
NICK EICHER, HOST: Mayor Breed's order cites survey data that show nearly half of San Francisco's homeless are from elsewhere. The mayor's Journey Home program requires city staff to encourage homeless people to move before providing other city services.
BROWN: The stated goal is to reunite those affected with their families or friends in their home country.
But how effective is it?
WORLD Radio's Anna Johansen Brown now with a story reported by WORLD's Addie Offereins:
ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: People end up on the streets of San Francisco for many reasons. Unemployment. Mental illness. Drug use.
PAUL WEBSTER: In the state of California, we make it very easy for people to become homeless.
Paul Webster, a former senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is now executive director of the LA Alliance for Human Rights. Webster says a number of factors draw people to the state, from generous welfare benefits to warm weather.
WEBSTER: Because the regulations against camping and sleeping are very laxly enforced. And that's why you see some of these challenges and problems with people who come to California who may not have the resources or the skills or may face other challenges that lead to them becoming homeless in California.
So where do the homeless on California’s streets come from?
Last year, the University of California, San Francisco, released a study that found that 9 out of 10 homeless people in the state have lost their homes. The study also claims that 7 out of 10 were homeless in the county where they were once housed. In other words, they are Californians.
But a recent count of the homeless in San Francisco produced different results: 40 percent of those surveyed came to the city from outside the city or from another state.
MICHELE STEEB: People come to San Francisco from outside to have better access to medicine or social services, whatever…
Michele Steeb is a homelessness policy expert and former director of a homeless shelter in Sacramento, California.
STEEB: Maybe they have friends and they just want to be with those friends who are, you know, living on the streets somewhere in San Francisco. That's a really important point that this example from San Francisco illustrates.
So if many of California's homeless people come from elsewhere, how can you help them return to where they came from? Paul Webster explains.
WEBSTER: People will say things like, “I'm from Indianapolis” or “I'm from Des Moines, Iowa” or wherever, and instead of going to the huge expense of housing or other services, they say, “You know, wouldn't it make more sense if we could get you a bus ticket or a plane ticket and reunite you with your family?” And people eventually accept that help and reconnect with their families of origin.
Still, California homeless officials told WORLD they were skeptical that San Francisco's busing program would make a lasting difference to people's lives, and that helping someone move out of the city might just shift the problem.
Jeff Hudson is interim CEO of the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. His district recently registered 75,000 homeless people.
HUDSON: People here and in San Francisco face a serious, systemic challenge that cannot be solved by giving them a bus ticket back to Des Moines.
Since last September, San Francisco has sent 92 people out of the city. Nearly 30 percent have relocated to other California counties.
And there is another problem.
HUDSON: It's not enough to just call people and say, “I'm lonely and I'd like someone to pick me up.”
Going straight home isn't always advisable. Broken relationships may have contributed to a person's homelessness in the first place. Sometimes going to a rehabilitation facility or networking in the community you're currently in is a better option. But this type of support requires more commitment than city officials are sometimes willing to provide.
JAMES WHITFORD: If the only idea is to use government money to get homeless people out of the city and back to their families, it will most likely fail.
James Whitford is CEO of True Charity, a network of anti-poverty charities. True Charity promotes personal compassion and encourages people to take part in their own recovery.
He is also the founder and executive director of Watered Gardens, a homeless shelter in Joplin, Missouri.
WHITFORD: We ask people about it. People come in the door and ask, “Where is your family, who is closest to you, who should we include?”
Reuniting a person with their family can be an important part of their recovery…if done well. And reconciliation is best accomplished through personal relationships, not government-funded programs. Whitford recalls a chronically homeless man who was addicted to drugs when he walked through the doors of a care facility in Missouri.
WHITFORD: He comes on the mission. He's in distress, and I ask him, “Where's your family?” He starts telling me about the burned bridges with his family in California, who never want to see him again.
Whitford asked if he could try to find out his mother's phone number.
WHITFORD: He says that's fine, but you know, they don't want to talk to me… and I call her, keep her on the phone and tell her that her son John is sitting right across from me, and she starts crying and wants to talk to him, which he never thought possible.
John decided to return to California and reunite with his family. Whitford says this was a crucial step in his recovery.
WHITFORD: Something really powerful happens when you rebuild the bridge. The forgiveness that it requires motivates a person to move forward on a path that is healthy for them.
For WORLD, I'm Anna Johansen Brown reporting from Addie Offereins.
WORLD Radio transcripts are prepared under time constraints. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programs is the audio recording.
