SCOTUS made a ruling that has a lot of people up in arms about "homelessness being criminalized." I don't see it that way.
To my mind, SCOTUS simply said "I know you're frustrated and want An Answer -- ANY answer -- but this is not it. You cannot twist the law this way. It won't fix the problem at hand and will do worse things in the future."
I sympathize with SCOTUS. When I was getting divorced after many years of being a homemaker, my husband was freaking out about my failure to promptly get a job -- ANY job.
I finally said "Okay, I will become a hooker. It's a job. ANY job." He shut up and got off my back and let me figure it out my damn self, which was what needed to happen.
California has roughly 12 percent of America's population, more than 25 percent of its homeless population and well over 50 percent of its unsheltered homeless -- people sleeping in tents and cars.
The national conversation blames California for this and keeps insisting the state is doing something wrong. I don't believe that's true.
I believe California is the dumping ground for a national problem rooted in decades of broken housing policy. We have a national shortage of affordable and appropriate housing. California just gets the fallout from that worse than average.
The stats that get used to claim most homeless are "locals" are an exercise in how to lie with statistics. The reality is that a lot of homeless people are mobile and many go there for the temperate, dry weather.
If you have portable income, such as social security or a retirement check, and you went to California to camp or live out of your car because of the weather: If at all possible, leave.
There are other places with temperate, dry weather and they typically have a lower cost of living. Furthermore, homeless services are completely overwhelmed in California and the state is desperate for solutions because they are drowning in a problem they cannot solve themselves because they didn't create it themselves.
If you are mobile because you have a vehicle or are willing and able to walk, bus, etc., start doing research on someplace cheaper that may meet your needs better than California currently can.
List stores you like shopping at, climate, cost of living and anything else you can think of. (You can help build a free resource by posting relevant links to r/relo.)
If you are not homeless but are concerned and want to help:
The real solution is to build more affordable housing where people can live full lives without a car. I've written up my ideas on how to do that here:
But even if that idea caught on like wildfire and commercial developers began building them all over the US today, it takes about 18 months to 2 years to build a new project from the time you break ground and it can take a few weeks or months before that to plan a project, acquire land, get approvals, etc.
In the mean time, you can help mitigate the problem:
1. Share this site with people in homeless services. It contains good ideas about how to feed the homeless well with minimal overhead, among other things.
2. Pay for hotel stays for homeless individuals. This gets them off the street for the night, may get them a free breakfast and let's them have a middle class shower, something not available at most shower services aimed at helping the homeless.
3. Help homeless individuals relocate someplace cheaper than California by paying for gas if they have a vehicle, giving them a ride or buying them bus tickets.
4. Help people find and get into currently available cheap housing via room rentals, finding a roommate etc. Be creative. Blog, start a reddit, whatever. I don't know everything.
5. Donate money to libraries earmarked for extending their hours so homeless people have a safe place to go where they can charge their phone and get free wifi, among other things, assuming they behave.