As states turn to the health care system to help address homelessness, experiments with housing and other social services aimed at getting people healthier and off the streets are met with aggressive new crackdowns , with some cities stepping up enforcement of existing laws against camping and others passing new restrictions.
From Florida to California, elected officials and law enforcement agencies have launched widespread operations targeting the homeless following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling making it easier for states, cities and counties to fine and arrest homeless people. those who live outside, even if there is no shelter. or available housing.
“These tactics cause chaos, not order. “They are not a solution to homelessness and, in fact, will make the problem worse,” he said. Ana Olivaexecutive director of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
The raids are a response to growing public frustration over the proliferation of homeless encampments and the public health dangers that often accompany them.
But growing evidence suggests that housing services and health care can help get people off the streets while stabilizing their health. What to do about the homeless has become a growing political question.
“Voters believe that mental health and physical health care are important parts of the solution,” he said celinda lakea national Democratic pollster. “They feel that if you arrest people and move them, you will only make the situation worse. Voters want real solutions. That’s what we’ve heard from Minnesota to Tulsa, Omaha, Nebraska and even Great Falls, Montana.”
Politicians are responding to the visibility of homeless people by clearing encampments, but in doing so, they are thwarting efforts to stabilize people and make them healthier.
Those raids are breaking crucial connections with street medicine providers, housing counselors and case managers funded by Medicaid and through other state and national programs, including the federal one. Medical care for homeless people program launched in 1987 to improve the health of those living abroad.
As law enforcement operations expand, health care providers on the ground say the efforts are making people sicker. Homeless people miss medical appointments, lose their medications, and have their IDs, birth certificates, and other vital documents thrown away, slowing efforts to get them home.
Health and social service providers in cities across the West, where there has been an increase in the number of people living outdoors, also report an increase among homeless people in substance use, suicidal thoughts and other mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
“All this money is used for health care to try to stabilize people and get them to a place where they can recover, but if they are forced to move constantly, we can’t find them,” he said Beth Rittenhouse-Dhesia long-time street medicine provider in San Francisco.
“People are losing their medications or throwing them away, and suddenly diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV, asthma, opioid use… are getting significantly worse,” because they are not treated.
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