Housing for All is a monthly column by Cory Wolbach
[Heavy sigh] Let’s talk about housing and homelessness. I’ve been involved in housing politics, policy, and advocacy in Santa Clara County for most of the last decade, and I’m still trash at explaining this, but I’m trying. So, here it goes. [Heavier sigh.]
Our lack of housing — especially affordable housing — leads to pressure for higher rents. Without renter power, those higher rents lead to rent burden and displacement. Displacement leads to homelessness. And overcrowding and hollowing out our communities, and damaging our economy and urban sprawl, and…… This is how it works.
Most people are homeless because, despite trying as hard as they can, they just can’t make rent. Yeah, of course if I were to have a serious medical (physical or mental) problem that kept me from working, I would have a harder time making rent. Just like if I broke my foot right before showing up to a game of musical chairs, guess who’s probably not going to get a chair? For many decades, we haven’t built enough housing. That’s why we’re playing musical chairs with our housing.
And, let’s be real: Rich people drink. Rich people use drugs. Rich people have mental health issues. Rich people make bad choices. Those are things people of any income level can experience. But when you’re rich, you can get drunk, get high, have a mental health crisis, or make bad investment choices and still probably not become homeless.
But, if you are already struggling, and you haven’t been able to save money because the rent has been too high for years, then, when you experience one of those human things, or when you get laid off or someone in your family gets really sick and the medical bills are insane, or when you are in an abusive home and need to leave in a hurry? What happens to your housing situation then?
Being rich means you can manage our housing crisis.
Not being rich means our housing crisis puts you on the verge of homelessness.
In Santa Clara County, we’ve actually done a pretty good job getting a bunch of people off the streets or out of their cars and into shelter and then into housing. A lot of them don’t even need help after they get back on their feet. So, what’s the problem?
The problem is more people are becoming homeless than we can help each month and each year. The people who are homeless are generally not a fixed group of people. It’s a condition that people move in and out of.
It’s like you have a leaky boat and you’re scooping it out with a bucket. And you are like the world’s best water bucket scooper. But the leak is just too fast. We gotta plug that leak. We need to fix our leaky boat AND bail water at the same time.
The people who peddle quick fixes to homelessness (like the current mayor of San Jose) are asking us to ignore the leak in our boat. They tell us that if we use a shinier bucket, our boat won’t sink.
And, even worse, some people think the way to solve homelessness is to put homeless people in jail. I mean, if you think jail is a home, then, sure, that makes sense. But I don’t think that’s what most people think of when they hear the word “home.” And, returning to the central metaphor of this column, punitive measures to hold unhoused people “accountable” are, at best, just another strategy to scoop water out of the boat. Ultimately, forced institutionalization of unhoused people doesn’t address the leak in our boat.
We need to fix the leak, to address our housing crisis at points before people fall into homelessness. This means more production of housing of all types, especially affordable housing; rent support, counseling, case management, etc. for people in crisis and at risk of becoming homeless; preservation of our existing low-cost housing stock; expansion of tenant protections and legal support.
Basically, we need the 4Ps (which once were 3Ps) – Production, Prevention, Preservation, and Protection/EmPowerment.