The idea that Eureka and Humboldt County is a mecca for the homeless doesn’t make much sense. Particularly because there’s fewer and fewer services and less and less housing for Humboldt’s increasing low income and houseless population. The usual intent behind these declarations is to scare people into allowing public officials and law enforcement to adopt and use laws to harass the homeless into leaving.
California has 20 percent of the total U.S. houseless population and the highest poverty rate of any state at 23 percent.
As of 2014, according to Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care reports, we Californians have the top 5 highest rates of unsheltered houseless people in major cities with San Jose, Fresno, Long Beach, San Francisco, and Los Angeles leading the way. All of California has 62.7 percent of its houseless people unsheltered. So, it’s not just Humboldt County. The HUD/CofC “10 Year Plans to End Homelessness” are not working very well. It’s obvious — just look around in Eureka and Humboldt County.
In February of 2015, the Policy Advocacy Clinic of Berkeley issued a report entitled “California’s New Vagrancy Laws.” In the 58 California cities where three-quarters of the houseless live, there are at least 500 anti-homeless laws that restrict standing, sitting, resting, sleeping and camping (including vehicles); with nearly nine laws per city on average. Eureka has six and is working on two more.
This criminalization of houseless people is not working, for anyone. Criminalization harms houseless people and perpetuates poverty by restricting access to the social safety net, the possibility of affordable housing and employment opportunities. They get citations, can’t pay, warrants are issued and the cycle continues. We all know what it’s called when we do the same things that aren’t working over and over again: insanity. So, we continue to dislodge, displace, dislocate, disappear and disrespect the less fortunate, and it’s still not working. Nowhere to go. It’s been proven for a long time that the cost of incarceration and hospitalization far exceeds the costs of housing the houseless.
In March of 2014, the U.N. Human Rights Committee condemned the United States for criminalizing homelessness, calling it “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” that violates international human rights treaty obligations.
So, it’s really a much deeper moral issue. Why do we keep doing this? This is not about statistics; it’s about our community values. What does a healthy community look like for all of our residents? More shopping opportunities? Why are approximately 900 children in our Humboldt County schools houseless? Do we care? Do we want to scale our consumption down and redefine affordable housing and material success?
Recently, Eureka Police Chief Andrew Mills and Rob Holmlund, director of Eureka’s Community Development Department, have begun highly publicized actions (the Times-Standard has covered these extensively) to “relocate” 100 to 200 people from what’s called “Devil’s Playgound” — again, a derogatory term used to scare people. The plan has four phases called “operations.” A 90-day “sanctuary camp” or camps is the most controversial component. Phase three of the operation is called “Operation Clean Sweep,” which will involve the police department increasing enforcement against illegal camping within the city while cleaning out trash and debris. The operation (after the Bayshore Mall) — planned to last between June 1 and Sept. 30 — would also include the opening of the temporary campground while cleaning out Devil’s Playground. If this means sweeping the whole city, we’re talking about upwards of 800 houseless people. Where do they go, scattered throughout Humboldt County?
This is not a “homeless problem.” It is a much larger societal problem. It’s about vilifying, persecuting and prosecuting scapegoats, our most vulnerable population, instead of honestly addressing the fundamental flaws and inequalities of our political and economic system. We (the haves) can allow spending trillions on perpetual wars, let the corporations/Wall Street and 1 percent stash trillions in non-taxable offshore accounts, while destroying our Mother Earth, cutting social services and then blame the poor and houseless for needing assistance. We (the haves) can ignore the facts that there is a severe shortage of affordable housing and living-wage jobs. We (the haves) can retreat into our comfort zones. We (the haves) can do better. We can make compassion, generosity, fairness and mutual respect our community values.
AHHA, Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives, a local advocacy group, has been saying this is a Humboldt County issue and we need a countywide task force, with all stakeholders, to implement sustainable solutions in a timely, humane way. Makes sense to me.
Jim Paquin resides in McKinleyville. Contact him at paquinjames@yahoo.com.