Corporate Responsibility is no Oxymoron
Listing on London's International Small-Cap Market
Going Public in Reverse -- A Strategy for Today's Market
Funding Growth on London's Market for Small-Cap Companies
Beware of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Homeless Court in San Diego: A Beacon of Excellence
Homelessness In San Diego: Fighting the Problem Effectively

Home : News : Homeless Court in San Diego: A Beacon of Excellence

San Diego Real Estate Attorney

Homelessness In San Diego:
Fighting The Problem Effectively
By Gordon Kaplan

The numbers will shock you.

On any night in the San Diego region there are nearly 10,000 homeless people -- men, women and children. While the sheer size of our homeless population is shocking enough, behind the total figure lies the truly unconscionable.

San Diego’s Regional Task Force on the Homeless estimates our homeless citizens number at any given time 530 or more victims of domestic violence, 1,200 or more veterans, and more than 2,300 members of families, headed mainly by single women. Homeless agencies struggle constantly to keep up with the needs of our homeless population.

At the center of the struggle are an estimated 1,400 “chronically homeless” people who consume a disproportionate share of public resources. Our present system for dealing with the chronically homeless relies on temporary, stopgap measures which, despite great cost, fail to address underlying problems. But a plan is on the horizon that offers lasting, cost-effective solutions.

The core problem of chronic homelessness

The chronically homeless are those who experience frequent or prolonged periods of homelessness; they usually have physical disabilities or a history of mental illness, and are often also substance abusers.

In 2005, of the nearly $70 million in public funds allocated to serving the homeless population in San Diego County, an estimated 50% or more was spent on the chronically homeless. Add to this the public costs incurred by chronically homeless people who are cycled through detoxification centers, hospital emergency rooms, the courts and jails.

Emergency medical services can alone be enormously costly. A 1998 study by Dr. James Dunford of the University of California San Diego Medical Center followed 15 chronically homeless inebriates over a period of 18 months and found that those 15 people were treated in emergency rooms 417 times and ran up bills that averaged $100,000 each. All 15 were still homeless at the end of the period. And a 2005 study for the California Program on Access to Care found that over a four-year period in San Diego, 450 chronically homeless inebriates ran up $17.7 million in emergency medical charges. That works out to an annual average cost of more than $39,000 each.

An article about the chronically homeless which appeared in The New Yorker magazine in 2006 quoted Dunford of UCSD Medical Center:

“… [I]t’s the guy who falls down and hits his head who ends up costing you at least fifty thousand dollars. Meanwhile, they are going through alcoholic withdrawal and have devastating liver disease that only adds to their inability to fight infections. There is no end to the issues. We do this huge drill. We run up big lab fees, and the nurses want to quit, because they see the same guys come in over and over, and all we’re doing is making them capable of walking down the block.”

In short, our reliance on temporary measures for dealing with the chronically homeless is a profligate waste of human resources and public dollars.

What can be done?

In 2005 a coalition of government, nonprofit and business leaders came forward with a comprehensive Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in the San Diego Region. The plan, which draws on similar plans across the country that have proven to be successful, has two key elements:

• Permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless, known as Housing First/Housing Plus, which means permanent housing plus “wrap-around” supportive services and case management to ensure each individual has access to needed services.

• A Prevention Plan to stop “at risk” individuals and families from sliding into homelessness, which envisages a series of measures including discharge planning for people being released from foster care, hospitals, jails and detoxification centers, counseling and other measures to address employment and landlord-tenant issues, and the development of mental health courts.

Similar plans to end chronic homelessness are known to work and to be cost-effective. A reported $104 million in federal, state and local funds are available for supportive housing over the next three years, of which San Diego can claim its fair share.

The Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in San Diego has been formally adopted by the city of San Diego and its sponsors are now gearing up to implement it through a governing board and a full-time executive director. An early task will be to seek formal adoption of the plan by the county of San Diego and all other cities in the region.

The effort to end chronic homelessness in the region will require strong public support from all our communities. We cannot continue to rely on temporary fixes and stopgaps. The cost in wasted dollars and blighted lives is unacceptable.

Kaplan, an international corporate attorney, is president of Homeless Court Alliance, a nonprofit formed to support San Diego’s Homeless Court Program.

San Diego Real Estate Attorney Disclaimer: The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult a attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation. Attorney representation in the following practice areas: Real Estate Law, Personal Injury, Estate Planning, Employment law, Bankruptcy, and Business law.