Sacramento region eyes new round of homeless encampment funds
by Chris Nichols
Sacramento officials say they’ll consider applying for some of the $300 million in homeless encampment funds made available this week by Governor Gavin Newsom.
But the program by itself won’t pay cities and counties to remove the vast tent communities that line streets and sidewalks across California.
Instead, to secure any money, local governments must come up with plans for how to shelter or house people living in the camps and offer them as alternatives to life on the street . . .
Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, said the governor is right to focus on encampments. But Winegarden, whose free-market think tank has criticized the state’s homelessness policies, said he believes its requirement that projects take a “Housing First” approach will undermine the program. Housing First is a strategy used by the state that calls for connecting unhoused residents with a permanent home as quickly as possible and removing housing barriers such as the requirement that individuals maintain sobriety.
The state’s grant application requires all projects, including temporary shelters, to include “clear pathways to permanent housing.” Winegarden says that’s a mistake.
“Housing First rarely follows up with the necessary support services that address the root causes of a person’s homelessness,” he said. “The result is that most who shuffle through the bureaucracy end up back on the streets.”
