By Dave Schwab

Local panel assembles to put a human face on the situation

While acknowledging the magnitude and complexity of San Diego’s homelessness problem, experts on the subject nonetheless recently concluded it’s resolvable.

A panel on “humanizing homelessness,” held at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park Feb. 25, included a mayoral aide, a Roman Catholic deacon, an artist, a police officer and a housing development consultant.

Panelists were introduced to the capacity crowd by Alex Kreit, a lawyer and associate professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, who acted as moderator. Kreit first asked each panelist a few questions himself before opening the discussion up to audience queries.

Artist Neil Shigley, whose photography exhibit “Invisible People” that profiles the homeless is currently on exhibit at the history center, talked about the origin of his work.

“In 2005, a man living on the street asked me to do his portrait,” Shigley said, adding that it prompted him to do others.

Shigley said he never planned on the photographs becoming a series, but he became captivated by “capturing the incredible character” of his subjects and said that doing the portraits humanized the homeless for him.

“I realized these were real people with struggles and dreams, invisible people who’d been ignored,” he said. “I thought if I could focus on each individual and channel the little information I knew about them into their likenesses, maybe I could touch a little bit on their human condition and make them visible.”

Katherine Johnston, director of infrastructure and budget for Mayor Kevin Faulconer, said homelessness is high on the mayor’s priority list and he believes in finding a solution.

“It’s a complex issue with a lot to do moving forward,” she said.

Deacon Jim Vargas, president/CEO of Father Joe’s Villages (FJV), a full-service homeless provider, said the nonprofit institution he manages works daily with the homeless population, whom he described as “the marginalized, the stigmatized and the disenfranchised.”

Kris Kuntz, a senior associate at LeSar Development Consultants who works with the homeless and the city’s housing policy, said he was pleased to have the opportunity to consult with FJV and other homeless providers, doing the “good work” it takes to achieve social justice by helping to house people.

A spokesman for San Diego Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team, Sgt. Michael Stirk, said he was inspired by his family history to “have a positive impact with homeless veterans.”

Moderator Kreit asked panelists about the nature of San Diego’s homeless, inquiring as to who they are and where they came from.

“It runs the full gamut from people with alcohol and substance abuse problems to the mentally ill and people who’ve grown up in the foster care system who turn 18 and end up on the street because they have nowhere else to go,” Stirk said, noting that many San Diegans are “only a couple paychecks away” from being on the street.

Panelists were asked if they believed in the “housing first” model trending in homeless care.

“It’s housing first, but not housing only,” Vargas said.

Vargas added that transitional housing has to be coupled with providing “wrap-around services for people” to help break the cycle of homelessness by addressing their root problems, which caused them to end up on the street in the first place.

Johnston said there are “different reasons why individual homeless require unique interventions.”

Noting that housing is a “basic human right,” Kuntz pointed out that furnishing housing to the homeless is “an initial platform, so all change can happen.”

Stirk said the most recent homeless count indicated there were 8,700 people living on the street in San Diego County, and 5,600 of those are in the city of San Diego.

“It’s a challenge to tailor a solution to 5,600 people,” he said.

The high cost of housing in San Diego is another major hurdle that needs to be cleared in order to get the homeless off the streets, Vargas said.

Johnston added that federal and local funding are being furnished to provide subsidized housing for San Diego’s homeless to help them transition off the street.

“We need to find a way to incentivize landlords to provide housing to veterans and other homeless,” she said.

One point the panelists did agree on was that there is real hope when it comes to housing issues.

“We’ve seen cities across the country do an awesome job housing the homeless and coming up with some really creative solutions,” Kuntz said. “We can learn from others.”

Panelists were asked if creating “tiny houses” for the homeless might be one creative solution to helping homeless become upwardly mobile.

“I don’t think it’s effective because it lulls the homeless community, giving them a false sense of security,” Vargas said, again noting that a better solution is providing them with wrap-around services which would allow for “long-term interventions” to get them to confront – and deal with – their individual problems and situations.

Johnston said experience has demonstrated that proactively working to get the homeless off the streets is much more cost-effective rather than reacting to their problems and issues through emergency medical care and the criminal justice system.

Stirk agreed, pointing out that providing ambulances and other emergency care to the chronically homeless can cost huge sums of money over time. As a case in point, he cited the record of one serial inebriate who’d run up an ambulance bill exceeding $200,000, just for rides to the hospital addressing overindulgence.

Vargas challenged the audience to get involved and become volunteers in the fight against homelessness. He told the assembled crowd that FJV has thousands of such volunteers and couldn’t function without them.

“You [public] are very much a critical part of the equation,” Vargas said. “If I leave you with nothing else, it’s this: work with us, partner with us in making a difference.”

“Homelessness is unacceptable,” concluded Kuntz. “It [homelessness] is solvable, as a community, across the nation. Homelessness can be ended.”

— Dave Schwab can be reached at [email protected].