Homelessness in SLO County is our fault

July 20, 2021

By GORDON MULLIN

“I got a right to be here” growled the homeless gentleman I was talking to just off the trail near our local sewage plant. I was riding my bike along the path and he hailed me down for a chat. As it turns out, he actually wanted to hit me up for money, but I stayed briefly for the conversation.

He was from another state, but he had heard that life was better out on the Central Coast. I agreed with him and then asked what he would do if the cops asked him to move. He first reasserted his rights, paused, then shrugged his shoulders and said he’d probably just find another place. Somewhere else.

There have always been folks who had no place to call home but certainly the numbers have climbed in the last 20 years, especially in California. Estimates run between 150,000 to over one-quarter million in our golden state today. How accurately can we count people who have no residence? Not well obviously.

You’ve heard the ‘whys’ many times: drugs, alcoholism, mental health, job loss, evicted from their prior home due to misbehavior, didn’t pay the rent or mortgage, marital breakup, committed crimes and perhaps they just have a low IQ and can’t hold a job- can’t function in society.

Admittedly, that’s a quick overview of the who and why. The pertinent question I’d like us to consider today is- in what way do our institutions, our laws and our expectations add to the problem. What’s our fault; you and me as voters and influencers of our local and state governments?

The readers of this missive are highly unlikely to be homeless. We’re the one’s who pay taxes and vote. We have the ultimate power through the ballot box. So today, I ask, what should we, what can we, through our governments, do to mitigate the problem.

This being California, lets start with our dysfunctional housing laws and regulations. We have some of the most expensive housing in America and, at base, it’s because we don’t want new homes and apartments built nearby- NIMBYism. Every effort by a developer to build housing in our state is met with ever increasing regulations, zoning restrictions, angry neighbors, escalating fees, costly regulatory delays and layers of administrative bodies that demand homage and paperwork.

I have builder friends in their eighties and nineties who built hundreds of homes and apartments in this county. Their stories of the comparative ease they met when seeking building permits some 50 years ago are heartbreaking. They could build a home within six months, from the purchase of the land to handing over the key, make a profit and the average working family could move in and pay a smaller portion of their paycheck then than the average worker would today. And their homes still stand.

Try the same exercise now – count on, at minimum, two years of administrative grief and north of $50,000 in government fees.

It’s our fault there’s not enough ‘workforce’ housing. We voted in legislators who happily added yet another shackle to the ankles of the building industry, link by link.

We also allowed, through legislation and court action, the dismemberment of mental institutions which housed those who cannot function in the general society. Yes, there is a good argument that some who were forced into our institutions should not have been but we’ve gone too far the other direction.

Ask a cop, “How much of your time is spent dealing with the crazies” and she’ll start with a groan. Our guys in blue have to deal with the fallout of our mistaken over-reach in the 80’s when we opened the doors of our mental institutions and failed to provide appropriate alternatives and threw away the laws that could mandate that, for example, the mentally ill must take their medications. We did that.

Another ancillary mistake is the legislative removal of appropriate responses to criminal behavior. Yes, I can walk into a store, load up a bag full of goodies, under $950, and walk out with the loot. If caught, it’s a misdemeanor. I won’t spend any time in jail. If I’m homeless, I won’t pay a fine.

I can steal, in broad daylight, a $200 shopping cart from a grocery store and the likelihood of a negative legal response is zip. Nothing.

I am reminded of the adage, “Every dysfunctional behavior that is tolerated, is encouraged.” None of us would think that we should raise our children with these standards, or at least I hope not, so why do we tolerate this behavior from our every growing criminal and homeless class?

Just as we no longer demand that our fellow citizens cannot defecate in the civic space, a public health mandate 2000 years in the making, we no longer, as a citizenry, embrace that the solutions to these problems lie with us. We say it’s someone else’s dilemma. Our politicians perhaps? Not me and thee.

I know that not everyone will embrace these sentiments. I will no doubt hear that the homeless and the criminals should be given extra latitude because of…. fill in the blank. And I am inclined to agree. Yes, give consideration, but only up to a point.

I think now we’ve gone too far and we accept aberrant behavior that even 20 years ago would not have been endured. We should stop now and head in the opposite direction.

You and I have the power of the ballot box.  There’s a state election coming up in two months and we, collectively, have the opportunity to steer our ship of state onto a different course.

Please, embrace the opportunity. We have the power; we have the responsibility.