"...Sacramento city and county have joined roughly 325 communities nationwide in a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness."

A couple things here. First, let's get something straight; the Bush administration may have provided a few paltry "incentives' to cities in order to assist them with their homeless problems, but it is the miserable policies of the Bush administration and a Republican-led Congress that have initiated dramatic rises in homelessness across this country. To be sure, most Democrat politicians followed right along with the majority of these policies, so both share culpability here. With that said however, the buck still stops on the desks of those "in charge." So if we're gonna give credit to the Bush administration for tossing meager scraps to us, let's be damned sure we are clear about why there is a need for those scraps in the first place. Second, while I don't often agree with the Sac Bee's editorial page, in this case they are right on point. One big complaint I often hear from folks who find themselves suddenly homeless but without a host of bad habits that both put them out and keeps them out, is that they are very often relegated to the bottom of assistance lists. By the time they qualify for assistance, they are very often in far worse circumstances than they would have been had we been able to lend an immediate hand and provide them with some quick and targeted help to get them back to work and into a place of their own. The dollars are sucked up into the vortex of problems associated with the chronically homeless, leaving precious little moolah (spell that "nothing") for those who just need a little push to get them back on their feet again...

Editorial: All homeless, not just chronic cases, need help

Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, March 16, 2008 Story appeared in FORUM section, Page E6

Spurred on by incentives from the Bush administration, Sacramento city and county have joined roughly 325 communities nationwide in a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness.

Who are the chronically homeless? By federal definition, they are individuals with a disabling condition who have been homeless for a year or more, with at least four bouts of homelessness in the last three years.

Typically, these individuals are men with chronic drug addictions and/or mental illnesses. Authorities estimate there are about 170,000 chronically homeless nationwide and roughly 1,600 in Sacramento County.

The chronically homeless don't include families recently thrown out on the street, homeless teenagers, penniless AIDS patients or women who are fleeing abusive partners. The chronically homeless tend to be drunks who have been sleeping on the streets for years.

They are the most visible manifestations of homelessness, as opposed to the kids thrown into the foster care system or the families sitting on waiting lists to get into local shelters.

Over the last eight years, President Bush has cut funding for certain social programs and resisted calls for a national strategy on poverty. Yet his "compassionate conservatism" has prompted him to set a goal in 2002 of ending chronic homelessness by 2012.

To this end, HUD has been offering bonus money to communities that marshal resources toward the president's goal. Sacramento has jumped on this bandwagon, and over the last year, city and county officials claim to have placed 171 individuals into supportive housing, with plans for another 140 units in 2008-09.

The local 10-year plan has triggered some worthy partnerships. Following in the footsteps of UC Davis Medical Center, Sutter has created a program to help treat serial inebriates who repeatedly end up in ERs and jails, costing society millions of tax dollars each year. Business leaders are enthused about the 10-year plan, hoping it will reduce the human blight they see along Richards Boulevard and the K Street Mall.

Yet there are tradeoffs to this local crusade. The city and county have provided little or no new money for it. That means that local resources – such as federal housing vouchers – are being targeted on the chronically homeless to the detriment of low- income families who have been waiting for vouchers for years.

To top it off, city and county officials readily admit they don't have funding for "case management" to serve the individuals who are being placed in leased apartments. Money is available for mental health and addiction services, but without adequate numbers of case workers, it is unlikely these people will be able to obtain the services they need to become healthy.

This shouldn't be a zero-sum game. Homeless families and kids constitute an estimated 45 percent of the national homeless population, and with the economic downturn, their numbers are growing daily.

The president has set up a system in which local governments are pressured to reallocate resources instead of mounting a comprehensive strategy to reduce homelessness. Sacramento residents should recognize this shell game for what it is, insist on a more comprehensive approach, and be willing to help pay for it.