We previously wrote on general solutions to homelessness. In this section, focus will be given to the recommended solutions to houselessness by BHHI. They mooted:
- An increased access to affordable housing to extremely low-income households;
- An increase of targeted prevention of homelessness, such as financial supports and legal assistance;
- A provision of robust supports to match the behavioural health needs of the population — say, mental health and substance use issues;
- An increase of household incomes through evidence-based employment supports;
- An increased outreach and service delivery to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness; and
- An establishment of a racial equity approach in all aspects of homeless system service delivery.
The incentivization of more housing supply by lowering costs and construction time through deregulation and avoiding harmful policies like rent control that worsen housing unaffordability will be instrumental.
The richest target for deregulation is also the state’s most firmly entrenched law, namely the California Environmental Quality Act. Well-intended when enacted in 1970, it has become a destructive force derailing “the possibility of homeownership” among the “hardworking members of Latino, Black and other minority communities,” according to Jennifer Hernandez, an environmental and land-use lawyer who has documented CEQA’s long list of litigation abuses.
Moving forward, a majority of California’s homeless victims, who are actually the ones who need help, said, on the BHHI study, that subsidy of $300 to $500 or housing voucher could have prevented their homelessness.
The government of the Gold State has actually been investing a lot of money in this problem, as discussed above. The twist is that enough money to fix the epidemic has been spent, yet the problem continues and is still growing. Hence, the government of the state should consider collaborating extensively with competent NGos.
