King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s Post

Our statement regarding Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order: The Lucky Duck Foundation believes no one should live on the streets – it is not safe or humane for anyone.   Although the Supreme Court’s ruling and now Governor Newsom’s position on encampments can be perceived as punitive, we see it as a way to move government towards adding more shelters and other immediately available beds to reduce homelessness and help our neighbors in need move off the streets quickly and safely.    To be clear, we do not in any way shape or form endorse the “criminalization of homelessness.” Rather, we fully support government’s ability to connect our homeless neighbors to lifesaving resources off the streets to reduce unsheltered homelessness and protect public health and public safety.    The governor’s strategy until now has largely focused on adding and acquiring housing, which is very costly and time consuming. And, California has seen some of the largest increases in homelessness in the country over the last five years. As such, it is critical the Governor’s decision to clear encampments be coupled with a shift in strategy and resources to quickly activate a significant number of shelter beds so that people can move inside and connect to lifesaving resources. Otherwise, it will simply result in moving people around without providing an immediate pathway off the streets.

🚨 A small Oregon town’s homeless crisis is front and center in a landmark Supreme Court case. The ruling, set for April 22, could reshape how cities across the U.S. handle homelessness. This isn’t just a legal debate—it’s about protecting the constitutional rights of those without shelter. Pathways to Housing PA and 36 other organizations have signed onto an amicus brief filed by CSH, the Source for Housing Solutions, supporting the Ninth Circuit's decision to uphold the U.S. Constitution by prohibiting communities from fining or arresting people for merely sleeping outside when they have no access to shelter. The decision will have ripple effects nationwide, impacting thousands who struggle with homelessness. Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/eunfNesp

Housing Alliance Delaware's recent 2024 Point-In-Time count saw a 9% increase in homelessness in Delaware. Each year, the Delaware Continuum of Care conducts a PIT count of people experiencing homelessness. As a community health advocate and partner of HAD, I understand that these numbers tell a story. The homeless also tend to be the most vulnerable to the opioid epidemic and those struggling with alcohol or drugs are often those who need shelter the most. It’s important to remain empathetic and supportive to those struggling and on the pathway to recovery. See the 2024 PIT Count Methodology here: https://ow.ly/BrPX50S8PrM

Please check out this important message

Please check the PATHS report on encampment sweeps and housing trajectories from our HPRI members Randall Kuhn and Benjamin Henwood. The Periodic Assessment of Trajectories of Housing, Health and Homelessness Study (PATHS) — a joint research initiative between the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, focusing on the lives and experiences of people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in LA County — features a representative sample of PEH who were unsheltered, with ongoing monthly survey tracking on housing, health, and well-being even if respondents move into housing or shelter. Read the Media alert here (Consequences of disbanding homeless encampments and rehousing efforts in Los Angeles County):  https://lnkd.in/er2TRTmi   Read full report here: https://lnkd.in/eN6_DFvN

"The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) strongly condemns the Supreme Court’s decision in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson to allow jurisdictions to arrest and ticket unhoused people for sleeping outside, even when adequate shelter or housing is not available. 'This cruel, misguided ruling will only worsen homelessness,' said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel. 'It gives cover to elected officials who choose political expediency over real solutions by merely moving unhoused people out of public view rather than working to solve their homelessness. These ineffective and inhumane tactics exacerbate homelessness by saddling unhoused people with debt they can’t pay, while further isolating them from the services and support they need to become stably housed. To truly address and solve homelessness, policymakers must instead work with urgency to scale up proven solutions, starting with greater investments in affordable housing and supportive services.'” Read more: https://lnkd.in/g7b4mR6r 

https://lnkd.in/gDkxNy_F I am grateful and beyond privileged to announce I have been selected to receive an all-expense paid trip to San Francisco next March to attend the National Alliance to End Homelessness Innovations and Solutions Conference. All travel arrangements, lodging, registration, food expenses, and transportation provided! I wrote an essay about homelessness. It basically explained that Arizona(after the 2008 foreclosure crisis) failed to build single-family homes to match population growth. Then we promoted a tax-break system to attract revenue through corporate interest development. Population doubled in ten years. That created a society too expensive to live in, while economists’ voices were drowned out by petty politics and political powergrabs focused on the velocity of money. We caused homelessness by being short-sighted yet drive around and look down upon it as a behavior problem. Meanwhile, grandma is on the sidewalk with her walker because she got priced out of her apartment(for the first time in her life). We task police to target homeless people when we should be solving homelessness. Add in a pandemic and a $30B fentanyl industry at the southern border and we have in Maricopa County 12,000 homeless people, rampant overdoses, 765 heat-related deaths every year, a 25% annual increase in the unsheltered population & 290,000 single-family homes short of what we need while we run out of water! THE POLICY DOESN’T MATCH THE PROBLEM! Maricopa County houses 1200 people a year with HUD subsidies while 700+ die in the sweltering heat. It’s a legislative problem causing a “stick” without a “carrot” situation and suppressing peoples’ intrinsic motivations…😞 Top it off with a billion-dollar AHCCCS FBI fraud investigation, and you have the fastest growing homeless crisis in the United States alongside the worst massive billing-fraud in Arizona history. #disposablepeople #housingfirst #SUDtreatment #Structuralviolence Director Townsend in Washington D.C. sends a letter saying, “Congratulations- you’re going to San Francisco!”… 😳

A very important read about the false promises of laws that would criminalize homelessness. In practice, these laws aren't reducing homelessness at all. In fact, they're creating chaos and making the work to rehouse people even harder. The reason is simple: because they are written by people who don't understand the issue at all, but do understand the political advantages of demonizing vulnerable populations. https://lnkd.in/ea2UCe2V

Is a homelessness annex missing from our emergency operations plans? This summer the Denver mayor declared homelessness, a disaster, to help mitigate the cities growing influx of people suffering homelessness. Does this non-traditional approach to solving a basic human necessity (shelter) fit within EM or cross too far into social service programs? There are many factors that cause homelessness; economic, eviction, physical & mental health, substance abuse, discrimination, war, and natural disasters… Does the cause of why people are homeless, negate the need for community, state and federal leaders to provide resources and support? The Marshall Fire near Boulder, CO in late Dec 2021, destroyed over 1000 homes and left thousands homeless. The government at all levels stepped in and had shelters stood up the same night and FEMA offered housing assistance and recovery programs. Is there a path for people suffering homelessness to activate or utilize those same resources? Would it take the Winter cold or Summer heat or another pandemic to trigger such support? If homelessness by itself is not a “disaster”, are there ways to accelerate other government social service processes to act as quickly and nondiscriminatory as disaster response mechanisms? Is EM stretched too far or not enough? Interested to hear your thoughts on this. #emergencymanagement #shelters #homelessness #Maslow https://lnkd.in/gq8Z66Bd

We at Neighborhood Hands are deeply saddened by #SCOTUS's shameful and wholly unproductive decision in the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass, which will allow local governments (if they choose) to criminalize homelessness amidst a housing affordability crisis of heartbreaking proportions. We wish to be ultra clear with all neighbors: We will never end the era of encampments with punitive, short term strategies that ignore the root cause of the problem -- a severe lack of affordable housing in our community. If residents and elected officials say “NO” to more permanent affordable housing and “YES” to forcing low-income and unhoused neighbors into shelters (with jail as the alternative for non-compliance) – while ignoring the elephant in the room that THERE IS SIMPLY NOWHERE FOR THESE PEOPLE TO GO after a shelter stay due to our area’s exorbitant cost of living – our collective actions are the strategic and moral equivalent of a wealthy doctor putting a bandaid on a foot-long flesh wound and saying, “this is the best we can do.” In the wealthiest region of the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, our unprecedented crisis is the result of decades of NIMBY-ism and short term thinking at all levels of government. We are dealing with an immense societal failure, and one that demands the utmost empathy for those who have been pushed to the margins. We will only turn the tide and keep our most vulnerable neighbors from the endless rip currents of homelessness if we invest in a LOT more affordable housing and proven prevention strategies. If we don’t, the long-term cost for everyone will grow, and our lowest-income neighbors will continue to pay the heaviest price in pain. We witness this first hand every Saturday at our program. Arresting our way out of homelessness is simply not the answer. We can and must do better. #johnsonvsgrantspass #homelesscrisis #supremecourt #letsdobetter