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This report combines cherry-picked data, faulty analysis and wildly inaccurate diagnosing of both the problem and its solutions. In addition to getting the fundamentals of homelessness wrong, your policy prescriptions completely miss the mark. 1/
Deregulation, increased policing and greater “self-sufficiency” won’t end homelessness - affordable homes, and the federal subsidies that make them possible, will. 2/
Homelessness in CA is a crisis, like in many other areas of the country. Federal action to solve the crisis is long overdue, but President Trump and @SecretaryCarson are clearly not acting in good faith to end homelessness. 3/
Instead, Trump and @SecretaryCarson have attempted, time and time again, to worsen homelessness in our country. 4/
They’ve proposed gutting or eliminating federal programs that keep the lowest-income people affordably housed, tripling rents for the lowest-income subsidized residents, and raising rents for all subsidized residents. 5/
They’ve proposed evicting 100,000 people, including 55,000 American children, from subsidized housing.
In California, over 37,000 people are at risk of eviction from this Trump/Carson proposal alone. 6/
In California, over 37,000 people are at risk of eviction from this Trump/Carson proposal alone. 6/
And they’ve proposed allowing homeless shelters to discriminate and refuse shelter to transgender and other LGBTQ people. 7/
Now, the White House implies that increased police presence and arrests would alleviate homelessness.
Let’s be clear: the federal government has no authority to direct city police departments to increase arrests of people who are homeless.
8/
Let’s be clear: the federal government has no authority to direct city police departments to increase arrests of people who are homeless.
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Courts have ruled it unconstitutional to arrest people for sleeping on sidewalks or in parks if there is literally no other place for them to sleep - like in most of California. 9/
Not only is criminalization of homelessness unconstitutional and cruel, it wastes public resources that should be spent on solutions.
Cities spend $87/day to jail a person versus $28/day to provide them a home. law.yale.edu/sites/default/…
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Cities spend $87/day to jail a person versus $28/day to provide them a home. law.yale.edu/sites/default/…
10/
A @CSHInfo case study found that prisons are three times more expensive than permanent supportive housing.
csh.org/2017/01/a-road…
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csh.org/2017/01/a-road…
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The solution to homelessness is affordable homes – not further criminalization, punishing poor people for their poverty, sweeping people experiencing homelessness into increasingly unsafe areas, or warehousing people in untenable/unsustainable conditions. 12/
See thread of evidence:
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If Trump & @SecretaryCarson want to end homelessness, they should start by protecting and expanding funding for programs that end homelessness, not working to cut or eliminate those very programs. 17/
But of course this report & Trump’s and Carson’s recent comments aren’t about ending homelessness
They’re about using some of our country’s lowest income & most vulnerable people as pawns in a political game -which is deeply despicable and dangerous.
18/18
They’re about using some of our country’s lowest income & most vulnerable people as pawns in a political game -which is deeply despicable and dangerous.
18/18
