It's just simple math here; living on the street comes with increased health problems and mortality rates; increases in the need and use of emergency services including police, rescue, fire and hospital costs; and increases the overall costs associated with maintaining the general safety and cleanliness of the community.
While it is good that the Marin Independent's editorial staff recognizes the need for action to meet the needs of those experiencing homelessness, it's disappointing indeed to see them stuck in the "managing homelessness" rather than the "ending homelessness" mindset.
That not a single mention of ending homelessness for the residents of the camps by providing resources like permanent supportive and independent housing through programs like Housing First is beyond disappointing; it's frankly a disseervice to the community profess to care about.
Aside from the obvious - housing ends homelessness - I'll wager my last dollar that the vast majority of the folks living in those camps wouldn't use an emergency shelter if it was placed two feet from their camps.
The reasons for this are myriad, mental illness that causes some to avoid crowded spaces; burdensome and restrictive shelter rules; personality conflicts with other residents and/or staff; fear; rude, uncaring or abusive staff; forced prayer in order to stay or eat; no access if intoxicated and/or/under the influence of a drug; no pets allowed; etc. All of these are reasons folks don't use shetlters that I have heard from others or experienced first-hand during my own time on the streets. So building additional shelters will almost certainly still leave a significant percentage of the very population they are targeting remaining out in the camps.
In addition, building "emergency shelters" does little to address the real problem of homelessness, for shelters in and of themselves do not provide permanent housing for their residents. It could be argued that they actually contribute to the problem of homelessness by funneling away resources that could be used to obtain and/or help subsidize long-term housing options. That rationale may be a little extreme, and to be sure, an emergency shelter certainly has merit in some situations. In this situation however, it is highly unlikely to me that this answer will be viable by any stretch of the imagination.
The bottom line here is that really, the only thing that will address this problem as a longterm, cost effective solution is to offer permanent housing for those individuals living in the camps that are placing the forests at fire risk.
I hope folks at the Marin Independent do a little more homework before they continue to push the idea of building more temporary shelters. The highest success rate to ending homelessness comes by providing folks homes of their own....
Editorial: Fires at homeless camps point to 2 problems
AFTER SEVERAL wildfires, the San Rafael Fire Department has targeted homeless encampments in the wooded hillsides along Andersen Drive, behind Boyd Park and in the Smith Ranch Road area.
For good reason.
In recent weeks, firefighters have had to put out several small fires that have been blamed on the makeshift camps that have long been a hidden part of San Rafael's wildland landscape.
San Rafael isn't the only city coping with the problem.
Novato firefighters this month put out a fire that started in a homeless encampment in the marsh behind the Hamilton Marketplace shopping center.
Last month, a man was hospitalized with burns after he tried to rescue friends from a brush fire started in a camp near The Village shopping center in Corte Madera.
San Rafael last week started sending teams of workers into the hills to clear brush and vegetation that provide protective cover for homeless camps, but also fuel for wildfires.
While San Rafael is focusing on the fire-safety aspect of this issue, the fact the camps exist points a needed spotlight at another pressing problem facing the county — homeless men and women with no place to go.
Marin's only nightly emergency shelter — the 40-bed Mill Street Center in San Rafael — is full.
That's one of the reasons there are men and women camped in Marin's hills — "invisible" but present, as a recent grand jury report called the county's homeless population.
The reality is camps that are removed just spring up nearby. Officials — and firefighters — likely will just be chasing fires from one camp to another.
An emergency shelter could reduce the number of homeless camps and their public-safety risk.
Cost and location are two of the obstacles to opening another emergency shelter.
San Rafael, which maintains it already does more than its share in terms of providing shelter and support services for Marin's homeless population, objected to proposed locations in the city that county officials came up with for a winter emergency shelter. No Marin city has offered a site for permanent quarters.
As for cost, the public tab for removing brush, cleaning out encampments and responding to fires — not to mention the real risks to life and property — may make opening another shelter an economically viable alternative.
San Rafael is right. This is a countywide dilemma, and one that remains a nagging and potentially dangerous problem rather than a top priority.
The recent fires in San Rafael, Novato and Corte Madera, often close to homes and businesses, should help fuel much-needed problem-solving that cuts across city limits.
Until something is done, officials are literally playing with fire.
