The solution to helping the homeless off our streets is a debate with many sides. Is it housing first? Is it drug and mental health treatment? Is it job opportunities with livable wages?
President Donald Trump’s newly-penned executive order seems focused on that population of homeless with addictions, and mental and emotional struggles.
Conservative San Diego County District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond says it’s “spot on.”
“We got to get people into treatment,” Desmond said. “We got to get people into the help they need.”
In his executive order, the president identifies this population of homeless as an overwhelming majority.
“Is there a percentage of individuals who are mired in substance use challenges? Absolutely. Mental health and some both, but we don’t see that it’s an overwhelming number,” Father Joe’s Villages CEO Deacon Jim Vargas said.
Trump wants an immediate end to encampments on our streets. San Diego already has an encampment ordinance.
District 9 Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera voted against it.
“What I didn’t think that we did was anything to provide folks with real options otherwise,” Elo-Rivera said.
Like many state lawmakers and the governor, Elo-Rivera emphasizes housing first.
“Why not provide housing for seniors who are not drug addicts, who are not the mentally ill maniacs that the president pretends everyone on our streets is?“ Elo-Rivera said.
For 75 years, Father Joe’s Villages has been providing for the homeless community. Vargas says there are approximately 10,000 homeless people in San Diego County and that 60% remain unsheltered.
“In the absence of shelter and appropriate care, what truly are we accomplishing here as a community?” Vargas said.
The executive order promises more money for treatment centers, outpatient treatment and other such facilities. Desmond says before, there was no way of making those who need help take it.
“The root cause to a lot of this is mental health, and we just can’t allow people that are mentally ill just keep refusing treatment and they end up living on our streets,” Desmond said.
Elo-Rivera says the order sidesteps people’s constitutional rights.
“To me, that reads like lawlessness. What that looks like in San Diego, we will see,” Elo Rivera said.
Vargas says he is more concerned than optimistic.
“Adequate shelter, adequate resources and housing, at the end of the day, is addressing this,” Vargas said.
The president may have put the words to paper, but the end of homelessness has not yet been written.
While the executive order offers greater federal funding for states and cities combating homelessness, it doesn’t mention specific amounts or where those resources will come from.