The situation in urban California should not be taken lightly. About half of the nation’s unsheltered homeless population resides in the state and in the past year, Los Angeles County itself registered a combined sheltered and unsheltered homeless population just shy of 60,000.
In San Francisco, the population of individuals living out of vehicles has increased 45 percent over the past two years. The situation is not being taken lightly by President Donald Trump’s Administration, either.
Trump’s visit to the Golden State last month to fundraise gave him an opportunity to address this crisis. Unsurprisingly, his statements were marked by dissent and finger-pointing.
On Air Force One, Trump said, “We have people living in our … best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings.” He claimed that California residents are “fed up” and that his administration will take action.
California residents were fed up at his actions. Protests closed numerous streets and a balloon portraying Trump as a baby was inflated and flown around the Bay Area. This chaos is somewhat understandable, as the president has time and time again verbally attacked the state and its liberal officials in regards to policy failures in the realm of sheltering the homeless population. However, policy responses have failed, and California needs Trump’s help.
In 2018, the City of Los Angeles spent $619 million to confront the crisis. Four hundred and twenty two million of those dollars were allocated toward developing homeless and affordable housing, but the projects have yet to be opened, according to the LA Times.
The city established two temporary homeless facilities using some of this money, but they are only able to house 147 individuals. Additionally, a short-term rental subsidy plan only secured permanent housing for half of all qualifying participants over the span of a year and a half.
The inability to shelter the homeless comes with its own host of problems. Trash, human defecation and used heroin needles littering the streets have brought an infestation of rats to the city, leading to fleas and life-threatening diseases, according to Forbes. One hundred and sixty seven individuals contracted typhus in 2018, up from only 13 reported cases a decade earlier. Hepatitis A, Tuberculosis and Staph are especially rampant in San Francisco.
Health officials in the state are currently predicting that the bubonic plague, or the “Black Death,” could respawn in the state. While this prediction sounds far-fetched, the state certainly isn’t creating preventative conditions, as state tight state regulations of pesticides do not permit the use of modern, powerful rodenticides.
Trump’s intervention in the problem is needed. He is currently working with White House officials and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to find solutions. One proposal includes moving homeless people into federal shelters. Another entails redesignating vacant federal facilities in the state to temporarily shelter individuals.
Details of either plan are being withheld until Trump’s confirmation of a single course of action. Regardless of the path, the federal government is able and willing to foot the bill. HUD’s budget for fiscal year 2020 is over $44 billion, significantly larger than California’s homelessness-combatting expenditures.
As usually holds true in U.S. politics, the federal government can execute policy on a much larger scale and produce greater results than states. Specifically, the U.S. was established as a federal system for reasons clearly demonstrated by California’s need in this case. Moreover, Trump feels that intervention is justified: “We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves.”
Californian liberals should not protest this situation as a Trump intervention, but instead as a federal intervention, in which the end game is to reverse the state’s pressing homelessness crisis, not just point the finger of blame. So what if Trump does point fingers? There are state officials at fault here, who lacked foresight and whose insubstantial policies have since resulted in a public health emergency in their own state. Maybe it’s time for Californian liberals to be saved from their own policies.
Your a idiot to blame Trump for this. California is a democratic state , just like Seattle WA and look what has happened there. He has a right to point finger because it’s the truth! If the Democratic would just let him work no e of this would have happened. Garcetti said no crime is being done by being in the street.. but the streets look like tijuana now… Thank the Democratic politician’s for this mess… We need to welcome me Trump to California with open arms and let him work. Most Californians don’t want him…