Can a Statewide Ballot Measure Solve Unsheltered Homelessness?
Unsheltered homelessness costs lives. This winter alone, six homeless residents died in the cold on a single night in San Jose; one burned alive in an encampment fire in Santa Rosa; and two were killed in Sacramento when a tree fell in a storm on their tent. California provides just one shelter bed for every three homeless residents, the lowest ratio of shelter-to-homeless residents in the U.S. and far below the national average.
In recent years, more people are demanding California prioritize providing people experiencing homelessness with life-saving shelter and sanitation. Such initiatives include the recently successful Measure O in Sacramento and the Los Angeles Alliance for Human Rights lawsuit in Skid Row.
Some of the folks involved in those initiatives are in the early stages of designing a statewide ballot measure to prioritize ending street homelessness in California. RSVP to attend Bay Area Council’s Homelessness Committee meeting on March 7, when we’ll learn more about this developing initiative from leaders of the California Alliance for Homeless Solutions and discuss what role the Council could play. To engage in the Council’s homelessness policy work, please contact Senior Vice President, Public Policy, Adrian Covert.
