Housing Claremont joins in this position posted by our friends at The San Gabriel Valley Consortium on Homelessness.
We have always supported best practices that prevent and end homelessness. These best practices need to be grounded in a comprehensive response from a city or community, where there are sufficient housing options with supportive services that help our unhoused neighbors address trauma and issues that prevent them from living to their full potential.
This aligns with a local control philosophy that each city has a responsibility to implement its own housing element and homeless plan that was submitted to the state. However, for decades, cities in the SGV have neither implemented their own affordable housing response nor short-term shelter or permanent supportive housing solutions.
Since many cities have not voluntarily provided sufficient housing options, and the State of California has not forced cities to implement their own housing elements or homeless plans, we oppose any response of encampment clean-up that leads to the criminalization of our unhoused neighbors.
Therefore, we oppose the current Executive Order from Governor Newsom, which we believe will lead to the criminalization and incarceration of our houseless neighbors as an ineffective response to homelessness. We urge Governor Newsom to act to require each city to provide the needed housing options before any encampment clean-up takes place.
The SGV Consortium on Homelessness and our 2,000 stakeholders of service providers, residents, and county/city staff who support best practices are here to support each city’s comprehensive response. When each city does its part, our region becomes an effective partner with a collective impact to house our neighbors experiencing homelessness.
Housing Claremont Board of Directors
Comments