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?<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump’s newly-penned executive order seems focused on that population of homeless with addictions, and mental and emotional struggles.<\/p>\n
Conservative San Diego County District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond says it’s “spot on.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to get people into treatment,” Desmond said. “We got to get people into the help they need.”<\/p>\n
In his executive order, the president identifies this population of homeless as an overwhelming majority.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a percentage of individuals who are mired in substance use challenges? Absolutely. Mental health and some both, but we don\u2019t see that it\u2019s an overwhelming number,” Father Joe\u2019s Villages CEO Deacon Jim Vargas said.<\/p>\n
Trump wants an immediate end to encampments on our streets. San Diego already has an encampment ordinance.<\/p>\n
District 9 Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera voted against it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I didn\u2019t think that we did was anything to provide folks with real options otherwise,\u201d Elo-Rivera said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Like many state lawmakers and the governor, Elo-Rivera emphasizes housing first. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy 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?\u201c Elo-Rivera said.<\/p>\n
For 75 years, Father Joe\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the absence of shelter and appropriate care, what truly are we accomplishing here as a community?” Vargas said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“The root cause to a lot of this is mental health, and we just can\u2019t allow people that are mentally ill just keep refusing treatment and they end up living on our streets,” Desmond said.<\/p>\n
Elo-Rivera says the order sidesteps people\u2019s constitutional rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that reads like lawlessness. What that looks like in San Diego, we will see,” Elo Rivera said.<\/p>\n
Vargas says he is more concerned than optimistic.<\/p>\n
“Adequate shelter, adequate resources and housing, at the end of the day, is addressing this,” Vargas said.<\/p>\n
The president may have put the words to paper, but the end of homelessness has not yet been written.<\/p>\n
While the executive order offers greater federal funding for states and cities combating homelessness, it doesn\u2019t mention specific amounts or where those resources will come from. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The solution to helping the homeless off our streets is a debate with many sides. Is it housing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,7265,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-90653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-homelessness","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114912406076034077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}