She grew up in Los Angeles. She spoke ardently of the time she studied astrophysics at a local university. But somehow she has slipped through the cracks and fallen into what seems to be a problematic abyss of being homeless and addiction with limited options for getting help.
On a breezy Monday morning, a young, disheveled female waits patiently on the curbside of Pico and 11th, in front of the Clare Matrix Center, a recovery institution for substance abuse and addiction. She hopes for a place in the program so that she can be on a path to recovery from her addiction to methamphetamine. But she must wait in line for a bed to become available and until then the street remains her home.
I am an intern at the Clare Matrix Center which has been here for over 50 years, so I get to witness firsthand a tiny snippet of what has been named a crisis here in Santa Monica. Men and women, young and old clasping on to hope that they might escape from the clutches of substance addiction. Many of them are homeless. This is just one subgroup of the homeless population that the City of Santa Monica is trying to support.
From what I can see, Santa Monica has been doing several things to combat the issue, such as adopting the “Housing First Approach,” which prioritizes placing people in permanent housing as well as focusing on development to ensure affordable housing is available. There are also homeless outreach teams that go out into the community, shelters that offer counseling, and a homeless task force that makes policy recommendations to find effective solutions. These are only some of the efforts being made by a city trying to understand and help solve the problem.
Yet still, the homeless population has increased in Santa Monica by 15% since last year, despite the amount of efforts made by cities working together to share data and resources.
So, what are we missing? With all these efforts put into place, why are we seeing more unhoused individuals on the streets?
Do we understand the etiology of homelessness in these individuals who need our help? Do we have a sense of humility by trying to understand them and embracing their stories? Why are we, many of us fortunate enough to live in a relative position of privilege, surrounded by desperate people who are suffering? Are we helping them in the way they need?
As I have grown to learn more about the complexities of working to resolve the crisis, I have become more aware of the needs of individual subgroups of the homeless. It is not a one-size-fits-all solution. For example, after completing a 90-day program at Clare Matrix, a man or woman may go to sober living and, after that permanent housing. But addiction is a complex issue. It requires a conveyor belt of dedication, both from the recovering addict and their community. Help such as getting a job, health care, and ongoing therapeutic services are some of the things necessary to remain in recovery. Many of these individuals suffer from severe mental health issues. They will need ongoing wrap-around services to ensure they stay in recovery. Mental health issues are not uncommon in the homeless community, and this remains a crisis and unresolved issue faced by Santa Monica today.
After looking at the current policy in place on ending homelessness, there are multiple pockets of money towards “finding housing” for multiple homeless groups, with $30.3million going toward TBRA (Tenant-based-rental-assistance). But there doesn’t seem to be a budget covering behavioral health for those with mental health issues. As someone who works with the community and in Behavioral Health, I feel compelled to express my opinion. If we do not work on providing mental health for the homeless, we will continue to go backward and not forward. For example, placing an unhoused individual who suffers from paranoia in housing seems logical, but without the necessary mental health services to ensure consistent communication, treatment, and care, that person may not have the ability to remain housed.
Behind the political curtain, senators have and are attempting to write bills to address areas mentioned above.
The Homelessness and Behavioral Health Care Coordination Act (H.R. 773) has been written but no current action taken. This is baffling as this would provide funding for mental health services across the United States, focusing on substance abuse and mental health issues.
The late Senator Dianne Feinstein, (D-Calif.) had introduced the Fighting Homelessness Through Services and Housing Act, a bill to authorize $1billion annually to help local governments combat homelessness. The bill, put forth in January 2023, recognizes that we must understand the root causes and address various areas affecting homelessness such as mental health, substance abuse, education, job training, life skills, and more. This includes tools to measure the success of these interventions for those who manage to remain in housing, an area we have neglected thus far.
This bill, should it be passed, would provide at least a step in the right direction.
We as a community could help by contacting Ted Lieu, our local Congressman, to help push this bill through congress this year. Ted Lieu can be reached at (323) 651-1040.
By simply vexing, our problems do not disappear. We need to start understanding the situation with compassion by looking at the facts. It is time to shift the paradigm. We must as a community be willing to support actual efforts to turn the tide.
Our city is experiencing homelessness at an alarming rate. We have all seen the man lying on the floor and wondered if he is still breathing. We have all seen the woman crossing the street unaware of the traffic, clearly under the influence of substance to remain elsewhere in her mind. Some of us have advocated. Some of us have quarreled about the tent cities in City Hall. When will this troubling reality just go away?
To tackle this together and head-on, we need to better understand the needs, complexities, and causation of homelessness amongst different groups of people.
An excellent website that provides resources for the homeless community which includes a list of shelters, food banks, medical services, employment assistance, and other essential resources is on the Santa Monica Homeless Resources Guide website.
Let’s pull together. Let’s advocate and move with compassion and empathy to address our moral responsibility. By working together, we can implement sustainable change.
Deborah Buhaj & Toni Huff, special to the Daily Press