The mayor of Long Beach, California, has declared a state of emergency over the city’s crisis of homelessness and vagrancy.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a similar “state of emergency on homelessness” after being sworn into office on Sunday, December 11, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Newly elected Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said in his inaugural address last Tuesday that he would push to declare a state of emergency on homelessness.
As California cities such as Los Angeles and Long Beach continue to struggle amid widespread homelessness and vagrancy, the City of Dallas faces a similar crisis.
Recent polling shows that Dallas residents consider homelessness to be a serious concern, and the need for the City to adequately address this “scourge of homelessness” has risen as some businesses in developing areas have resorted to using private security to protect themselves from violent vagrants. Meanwhile, other businesses have been pushed out of those areas entirely.
As reported by The Dallas Express, a man suspected of being a vagrant was recently arrested for allegedly smashing the windows of a Ford pickup truck in downtown Dallas.
When asked if Dallas would benefit from declaring a state of emergency on homelessness, Jennifer Brown, public relations officer for the City, told The Dallas Express, “Due to the collaborative efforts of service providers and the City, Dallas is not a place where we foresee a crisis of the magnitude experienced in L.A.”
Homelessness increased 62% over the past year in Long Beach.
On Wednesday, Richardson sent a letter to City Manager Tom Modica in which he reiterated the urgency of addressing homelessness.
“We need more speed to address this issue and a heightened sense of urgency for all our City teams and partner agencies,” the letter read. “Our City team needs the tools to remove barriers to hiring and procurement, the ability to construct and contract quickly to build shelter, and a structure to implement solutions and speed delivery of information, data, and results.”
Richardson said, “It is clear that, with resources and focus, our community has the compassion and the ability to help get people off the streets.”
The declaration could allow the City to fast-track two planned projects: the conversion of a motel into temporary housing and the construction of “tiny homes” for homeless people.
However, recent data published by the Center on Wealth and Poverty at the Discovery Institute indicates that many government efforts are “doomed to failure” because they “begin with an inadequate diagnosis of the causes,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The report explains that such “housing first” solutions are not likely to solve homelessness because they ignore untreated mental illnesses and enable addicts to continue using drugs.
Partly for this reason, the City of Dallas discourages residents from giving money to panhandlers as it enables them to remain on the streets. “Giving spare change without offering support could make matters worse,” the City explained, suggesting well-meaning people direct the homeless to City services.
The “Housing First” approach also compounds the issue of homelessness and vagrancy, as such policies disperse the truly homeless across the city, making it more difficult to implement a successful single-point-of-service model like that of San Antonio’s Haven for Hope program.
