Column: Could extreme heat be just what California needs to finally solve homelessness?
California faces a housing crisis and an economic crisis. While state leaders and some homeless advocates like it when someone asks them to take action, the fact is they can spend the money, even at high levels, on other things. If extreme heat could solve the problem, it would free up more money.
It’s not clear any solutions are viable.
The state and federal governments are cutting services for the homeless. The homeless population in California is not increasing, but the number of services available to them has decreased. One reason: The people who are sleeping outside the state are getting into cars and driving home.
In addition, they are getting jobs, usually low-wage jobs, that don’t pay them enough for them to live on. They become homeless because their paychecks run out.
Homeless services are often funded by states, and California has been cutting funding in recent years.
And, as the mayor of Los Angeles told me, the federal government is cutting funding for services.
We have tried to take action. The state has tried to fund shelter, but the government is not able to do that. It has also attempted to expand the budget for homeless services, though so far without success.
But why doesn’t California try to offer homeless services?
My question is why not?
I believe California is going to have a housing crisis and an economic crisis, and they will not solve the latter without addressing the former.
State leaders are trying to solve one crisis with funds that have been already been used to solve the other.
If California could provide shelter, the homeless would leave the state. They could live in the state. They would be forced to take part in the economy, and they could earn their way out of the state.
California’s homeless people are not all young people with no job prospects and no plans. Those are not the people we care about.
We need to focus our efforts on the needs of the people who are homeless.
First, we need to know whose homeless services the state is funding.
Second, we should figure out whose responsibility it is to provide homeless services.
We should not be spending money on services for and by the homeless. Instead, we should be spending the money on the