The Myth of the Magnet City
Are people on the streets immigrating, or have they been our neighbors from the get-go?
In communities throughout the country, you will hear a common complaint by critics of homeless services: “Our city is a magnet for homeless people because of services. If we build it, they will come.” Often, the idea that a city is a homeless Mecca is perpetuated by newspapers writing as fact that their city attracts individuals experiencing homelessness from other regions in the country. You will hear this common thread, sometimes whispered, sometimes shouted, among neighborhood and cultural groups, police bureaus, business communities, and politicians.
Liberal communities up and down the West Coast have been dubbed by many as a place of last resort for people experiencing homelessness. Los Angeles has been called the homeless capital of the United States; San Francisco, a bum’s paradise; Seattle and Portland, a place to go to access great services available for poor folk. “There’s two really damaging mythologies: One is that people choose to be homeless, and the other is if we provide services, all the homeless people from around the country will flock to our city,” says Marshall Runkel with the Portland Bureau of Housing and Community Development.
The gap between the rich and the poor is at an all time high—and growing. Could it be that a homelessness and housing crisis is taking place because of the lack of affordable housing coupled with loss of jobs, inadequate healthcare, and the lack of supportive services in every region of the country?
Street Roots wanted to know what was happening on the ground in six cities on the West Coast to find just where individuals experiencing homeless are coming from. Numbers are based on one-night street and shelter counts. Many organizations and advocates believe the numbers to be low because of the restrictive nature of the Housing and Urban Development’s guidelines for who is considered homeless. For example, individuals and families that are living in hotels or are doubled-up sleeping on couches are not included in local counts of people experiencing homelessness.
San Diego County
According to San Diego’s Regional Task Force on Homelessness, more than 7,300 individuals are experiencing homelessness in the urban area—the majority in San Diego proper.
Outside of the city, more than 2,300 adult farm workers and day laborers live in encampments. The workers’ tenuous living conditions and their geographical, language, and cultural isolation make it difficult to closely estimate their numbers, according to the Task Force. Officials claim this number is low because outreach workers on the count were unable to access many local canyons.
According to officials with the City of San Diego, more than 60% of individuals accessing services report being from the city itself—with 25% being from the county. “A very small percentage of people on the streets in San Diego come from other areas,” says Sharon Johnson, Homeless Service administrator with the City of San Diego. “We do have snowbirds that come down in the winter, but it’s only a handful of individuals.”
Los Angeles County
According to the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority, 141,737 people experienced homelessness in Los Angeles County in 2007—nearly 1.5% of the population. More than 40,000 of those individuals are living in Los Angeles proper, with the highest concentration being downtown in one of the country’s last remaining skid rows. More than 5,000 homeless individuals call LA’s Skid Row home.
The Authority’s figures say an estimated 84% of those individuals lived in the area when they became homeless with another six percent being from Southern California. “65% of those individuals have lived in Los Angeles County for more than 10 years,” said Syd Peterson, communications manager with the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority. “I think it’s safe to say that people aren’t coming to the region to access services.”
Peterson went on to say the small percentage of people living on the streets who are not from LA mostly came looking for jobs or because family lived in the area.
Santa Clara County (San Jose)
According to officials in Santa Clara County, 7,491 individuals are living on the streets and in shelters—with more than 18,000 people experiencing homelessness every year. County figures there show that an estimated 78% of individuals experiencing homeless lived in the county when they became homeless, with 15% being from another county in California. “Every community across the nation has homeless people, and every community does its best to provide services and supportive housing,” says Marjorie Matthews, director of the county’s Office of Affordable Housing. “We have more homeless individuals than San Francisco, but we have a larger geographical region.”
Matthews says the vast majority of housing being provided goes to individuals who are from Santa Clara County. “People have been priced out of their homes,” she says. “We have Silicon Valley. We’ve seen a huge increase of population. The hope of finding a job draws people to Santa Clara County. When the recessions have hit, it’s been people who live here, the ones who were hit the hardest.”
San Francisco
If there’s a city that has been dubbed the homeless Mecca more than any other city in the United States, it is San Francisco. The city is just a quick train ride away from Alameda County where more than 8,000 individuals experience homelessness—mostly in Berkeley and Oakland. More than 6,300 people are experiencing homelessness in the City by the Bay, according to officials. The City of San Francisco estimates that nearly 15,000 people experience homelessness in the city every year. According to a one-time survey of 100 individuals who use the shelter system, an estimated 69% of individuals experiencing homelessness lived in the city prior to becoming homeless. According to Jennifer Friedenbach, Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness, “with over two thirds of our homeless population being from here, the idea that we are attracting homeless people from all over the nation is ludicrous. If anything, our city has a well-earned reputation of being one of the meanest cities in America for homeless people. Homeless people are being cited, jailed, and displaced at an astonishing rate.”
Multnomah County (Portland, Gresham)
According to city and county authorities, 4,456 individuals are experiencing homelessness in Multnomah County, and nearly 15,000 people experience homelessness at some point during the year.
Based upon data provided by the Bureau of Housing and Community Development, an estimated 77% of people living on the streets accessing services in Portland gave their last permanent address in Multnomah County. An estimated 15% became homeless in Oregon—the bulk being from the region of Clark, Clackamas, and Washington counties. Some of the numbers provided included individuals who refused to give services their last permanent address.
King County (Seattle)
According to the Seattle/King County Coalition for the Homeless, which works with the City of Seattle to conduct the one-night homeless count, more than 8,300 individuals are experiencing homelessness in King County. Approximately 24,000 individuals experience homelessness in King County in any given year.
Seattle is encountering internal grumblings within the mainstream social service community about the effectiveness of the Federal government’s 10-year plan to end homelessness. The Emerald City has seen a 15% increase in homelessness over 2007 figures.
More than 80% of individuals surveyed through the 2008 one-night shelter count were residents of King County when they became homeless.
“When people say providing good services will attract more homelessness, they aren’t taking into consideration that every single community up and down the West Coast and around the nation are dealing with a homelessness and affordable housing crisis,” says Alison Eisinger, executive director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness. “It’s no joke.”
The Rural and Suburban Effect
While individuals from other parts of the country are not flocking to cities for supportive services—it’s clear that geographical regions are dealing with a very complex set of circumstances. A perfect storm, so to speak.
During the past few years, rural and suburban communities have seen a spike in homelessness and the loss of affordable housing units. Individuals with disabilities or on fixed incomes simply can’t afford market-rate housing. Couple this with low-paying jobs, lack of healthcare, recessions, and a gutting of human services over the past 15 years, and many rural and suburban residents are being left out in the cold.
Suburban communities are also being squeezed with a population increase due to individuals’ and families’ being priced out of the urban cores. Portland is no different: If you combine the four-county region (Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Clark), more than 10,000 people are sleeping on the streets and in shelters with well more than 25,000 experiencing homelessness in a given year. That doesn’t include people living in motels or individuals and families doubled-up in crowded living quarters.
Washington County recently counted 1,241 individuals and families experiencing homelessness. County authorities say the county lacks basic infrastructure to help a growing population of individuals and families experiencing homelessness and poverty. They say that local law enforcement doesn’t have places to direct the homeless population to, resulting in officers’ asking individuals to leave the area for services. Social service providers in the region say they have seen a tremendous increase in single men and women from Portland who feel safer in Washington County, or have left due to continued harassment from law enforcement in Portland.
The county is currently implementing a 10-year plan to end homelessness, and a poverty and social justice movement to end homelessness is unfolding among faith-based communities in the county. (See “Cold Sweat,” (3 Mb PDF) Street Roots, January 25, 2008.) Reports put the number of people experiencing homelessness in Clackamas County at 3,543, with more than 8,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in a given year. Like Washington County, Clackamas lacks basic infrastructure to support the rise in people experiencing homelessness. Clackamas County recently developed a 10-year plan to end homelessness that went into effect in November of 2006. When asked if local communities are doing their part to address the problem, Mark Scirois, homeless service coordinator for Clackamas County, says, “It’s been delegated to the county to take care of housing.”
“Small towns are just now starting to realize the severity of the problem,” Scirois says. Ultimately like countless individuals Street Roots spoke to for this story, Scirois points towards the Federal government. “We are barely being subsidized to retain the services we have,” Scirois says. “We don’t expect much help from the Feds. We’re more or less on our own. Possibly that will change when the administration changes.”
Clackamas County has only 38 emergency shelter beds and 108 transitional housing beds for more than 3,000 people sleeping on the streets. Like Portland, Seattle faces many of the same barriers. “These are regional issues,” says Alison Eisinger with the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness. “There are many cities around the country saying the surrounding areas need to take more of the slack and accept the need for emergency shelters and services for people, and they’re right. Unfortunately, there’s a staggering disinvestment by the Federal government for public housing and that hits everybody—and that’s why we’re seeing an increase in suburban and rural homelessness.”
“At the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of people sleeping on the streets are from the United States of America,” says Paul Boden with the Western Regional Advocacy Project. “It’s time for bureaucrats to stop pointing the finger at the community next door, and demand that the Federal government do something. It’s a disgrace.”
© Street News Service: http://www.street-papers.org
Reprinted from Street Roots: http://www.streetroots.org
For more information on homelessness across the West Coast and the impact of Federal cuts to housing visit the Western Regional Advocacy Project Website at:
http://www.wraphome.org
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