Blog

This blog originally ran as an opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee.

Of all the problems our state and local governments are trying to solve, homelessness is among the most important and challenging. The number of homeless people in California has climbed dramatically in recent years, to about 134,000, though experts agree the actual number is probably far higher. Their lives are literally hanging in the balance.

Passed and signed into law last year, SB 1 is starting to generate revenue which will reach more than $5 billion a year at full implementation. The revenue is allocated to state and local governments to fix and make safety improvements to highways and local streets and roads, repair or replace aging bridges, increase active modes of transportation, improve and expand transit, and reduce congestion. Accountability is one of the key components of SB 1. In fact, SB 1 created a new position of Inspector General at Caltrans.

We know how busy everyone is, and how overloaded we all are with information. Our mobile devices keep us plugged in 24-7, and just deciding what is important and what isn’t can be a chore. We also know that attention spans are getting shorter, not longer. There are a lot of reasons for that, not all of them comforting perhaps, but they are well documented. At CSAC, we know that if we really want to reach people we have to be concise in our communication.

What a year 2017 has been! It is going to be history soon, and as we approach the holidays and the New Year, I am reflecting a little bit on the year that was.  For CSAC, it was truly an exceptional year—in some very good ways, and also some very difficult ways as more than a dozen California counties suffered devastating losses this year due the unprecedented wildfires.

What we know: homelessness is complex, homelessness is personal, and homeless solutions must be individualized.

Of the nearly 118,142 men, women and children struggling with homelessness in California (nearly half of all unsheltered people in the country in 2016), it’s obvious that the causes of homelessness and poverty span more than one particular issue. Loss of employment, mental health, limited affordable housing, substance abuse and system gaps, all play a role and are at times, co-occurring, which only adds to the complexity.    

This has been an incredibly difficult year for a lot of people. From hurricanes in The Gulf to the wildfires here in California, natural disasters have taken dozens of lives and tens of thousands of people have lost their homes, possessions and their way of life. I would be remiss in not mentioning the human tragedies of the recent shootings in Texas and Las Vegas as well. There is no way words can explain those events—or the impact they have on the victims and their families, but, that is precisely why they weigh so heavy on the human experience.