Homelessness is Hard for Everyone

Christine O’Hanlon, Deputy Public Defender

No matter what your political leanings are, I think most of us are frustrated by the chronic problems with homelessness in our communities. No one likes to see tent cities, camps, people sleeping on the streets, the trash, remnants of drug and alcohol addiction, and other belongings strewn about our streets.  I am sure the people living like that did not plan to live like that and wish it were different for them too.  They don’t want to be out there like that, but have given up when faced with the steep obstacles to rectify their individual circumstances.  Even with the $18 million Marin County received to work on homelessness this spring, there does not seem to be a solution to this problem, which seems like it has bounded too far out of control to reel it back in.   

The American Way is to live free or die.  With our entrepreneurial, profit motivated, individualistic, competitive, libertarian spirit, we live in a sink or swim world.  Those of us who are relatively healthy, employed, and housed are the ones who are swimming—whether at a dog paddle or Olympic level.  Those of us who have physical and/or mental health conditions, who are under employed, unemployed, or unemployable, and are unhoused are sinking, if not already sunk.  Where should the people who have sunk go?  What responsibility do the swimmers have to the sinkers?  What responsibility do the sinkers have to the swimmers? 

I wanted to understand why it might be so hard to work a full-time job and still have trouble finding housing.  According to the Marin Countywide Plan, the 2023-2031 Housing Element considers an income of less than $73,000 per year a “Very Low Income.”  For example, the County estimates the average annual income for a full-time dishwasher is $34,734, at $16.70 an hour.  The County estimates an affordable rent and utilities for a dishwasher as $868.35 per month.  A retail salesperson makes $20.75 an hour or $43,163 annually.  The recommended affordable rent and utilities is $1,079.07 per month for a retail salesperson.  A construction laborer makes an estimated $26.56 an hour or $55,256 per year, and the recommended monthly rent and utilities for a person at this income is $1,381.40.  

Then I did a search on Craigslist North Bay Housing for Rent of vacant one-bedroom apartments for under $1,500 per month, which is more than what the County recommends as “affordable,” there were three listings within 10 miles of San Rafael.  A search of “rooms for rent” under $1,000 revealed 22 listings.   This told me that there is not much available for rent in Marin for very low income individuals.  People earning less than $73,000 need to live outside of Marin, or opt for shared housing.  

Then, there are the group of people in our community who are disabled due to mental and/or physical problems, who are incapable of working.  If they receive monthly social security, the amount is about $900 to $1,200 a month.  With the above rents, how can they afford anything?   The only way they could afford anything would be through family members or subsidized housing.  According to the Marin Housing Authority, the average wait-time is 5 years for an apartment through Section 8 housing!  Five years?!  What is that disabled person supposed to do in the meantime? 

We all wish homelessness would be resolved once and for all.  For now, how can we improve the impact homelessness has on the homeless people themselves and the rest of the community?  Perhaps we come up with many different solutions to combat the problem from several angles.  There is no one-size-fits all solution for all unhoused people.  It will never be perfect, but we can make it better. 

Compared to tent cities and homeless people camping on city streets, the RV/Vehicle Camp on Binford Road in Novato is the better scenario, in my opinion.  I concede the problems with waste management, crime, and pollution are drawbacks of Binford Road.  However, there are strong benefits.  On Binford Road, people park RVs and other vehicles and live inside those vehicles on the side of Binford Road, which is a frontage road to Highway 101 that leads to a commercial development.  Instead of tents, tarps, and sleeping bags spread out in the middle of the sidewalks of downtowns, the people and their belongings are contained in their vehicles.  Living in an RV or other vehicle reduces the unhoused person’s exposure to harsh weather and contains their belongings.  This leaves public sidewalks in commercial and residential neighborhoods free of unhoused people.  Plus, these individual vehicles are not parked on residential streets where they would increase congestion and waste for other housed people.  Additionally, if there is drug and/or alcohol misuse, it is occurring inside the vehicle instead of out on the street in public view, which presents risks to the public.  Is this a perfect solution?  Absolutely not.  But it is better than people camping on sidewalks.   

Jonathan’s Place, the primary homeless shelter in Marin, has 38 beds.  This is a temporary shelter which offers shelter on a night-by-night basis. Eventually people can transition to the program called New Beginnings, which has 80 beds of transitional dormitory style housing built on the decommissioned military base at Hamilton.  People can stay there for several months.  There is onsite staff, meals, counseling, job support, and services to help people find long-term housing.  Strict rules prohibiting onsite drug and alcohol use apply, which will deter some people, but are probably necessary for the comfort of the majority of people staying there.  Perhaps Marin could add a second night-by-night shelter with dormitory transitional housing.  This would be another 80 to 118 people off the streets working for stability in our community.  There must be some vacant building in Marin which could serve this purpose. 

Another area to press for, in terms of long-term housing, is to incentivize more Section 8 Housing to landlords.  People who own rental properties want a sustainable and profitable investment.  It is unreasonable to expect a landlord to “give away” or sacrifice profitability on rental properties to help homeless and impoverished people.  Instead, the State, County, or municipality can rent the property at market rate from the landlord, and the State, County, or municipality can charge the tenants a rent well-below market rate.  This system could be in employed all types of structures—single family dwellings, multi-unit apartment houses, hotels, and any other vacant buildings.  This resolves two of many issues.  First, the landlord is appropriately compensated for the services they are providing.  Second, this avoids “handouts” to homeless people, which many people find disdainful because of the concern the handout will be misused or will encourage unproductivity.  The drawback, of course, it is unfair to the person working three low-wage jobs to cover a market rate rent when some people are receiving a significantly reduced rent. 

All of the solutions cost the community money.  Nothing is free.  Have the current circumstances of homelessness reached the point where the cost to do nothing and allow it to become worse has exceeded the cost of investment to ameliorate the problem?  I hope we are at a point where investing in ameliorating this problem is worth it to all of us.  This year, our County invested $7.5 million of taxpayer money to repave a parking lot at the Civic Center.  We had the will to invest $7.5 million into fixing a parking lot.  Don’t we have the will to put resources into housing people to reduce people sleeping on sidewalks in downtowns creating trash and hazards for other community members?  There are many people working diligently to ameliorate homelessness.  I hope more community members will join into finding the solutions, none of which will cure homelessness, but at least make it better.  For the sake of all of us, I hope we do.