Unfinished history report on homelessness

Here is my unfinished History report paper. I still have some tweaking to do.

The Homeless Community: How We Can Help

What is your favorite thing about Santa Barbara? Is it the sunny weather? The sandy beaches? There's a multitude of reasons to come to Santa Barbara County, but the one thing that many people’s eyes skip over is the homeless man sleeping on the park bench, or the homeless woman with a cardboard sign on the freeway exit. According to a study done in 2014, California has the sixth biggest homeless population in the US (This interactive map Movoto Blog). Most people don’t stop to acknowledge the homeless because they can’t get housing, and that needs to change.

The first step to getting the people of the streets is permanent housing. If everyone could help house the people on the streets, they could get a job. We should do this because they are people just like us, they are on the streets for different reasons, and they need our help getting back on their feet. The data and statistics of the homeless community have to change. Studies in 2016 that said that 11% of the homeless community are veterans who didn’t learn the skills needed to make a living after they finished their service (Survey finds number of homeless Noozhawk). These veterans are also typically homeless longer than the average person.

The homeless need our help because life on the streets is dangerous, and homeless children can’t get as good of an education and might end up staying homeless. The biggest cause of homelessness in Santa Barbara is the high real estate prices, and lack of housing. These problems affect us all. Another study showed that about 53 percent of homeless people lived in Santa Barbara before losing their homes, and 23 percent were from a different part of the state (Noozhawk). The homeless are our neighbors, and they need our help.

There have been many attempts to end homelessness, and while they work, there needs to be a more permanent solution. Homeless shelters are one solution that is being used now, and while work, emergency shelters are meant to be a holding action, and don’t provide a long-term option. The government spends a lot of money one homeless shelters and services, $20,000 per person, every year. Another way people are helping is by donations. Food donations are always good because that is one thing that people on the streets need, but when people give money they can’t guarantee how it will be spent. Clothing and camping supplies are also good, but to get homeless off the streets, they need homes.

Permanent supportive housing is the answer. It has been proven to work in other cities, so we should try it more in Santa Barbara. Permanent housing is housing that is rented by the government and then leased to the homeless for lower than market-rate housing. Services like care for the mentally ill and skill teaching are also included. Permanent housing helps homeless eventually get independent housing too. As proven in the Utah study, permanent housing is more cost effective in some cities than emergency homeless shelters (Utah found a Brilliant Solution Business Insider). Another study gave different housing assistance to 2,300 homeless families in cities like Denver, Colorado, and Honolulu. It showed that vouchers for permanent houses were less expensive than shelters. Honolulu is a city similar to Santa Barbara, so if permanent housing works in Honolulu, it could work in Santa Barbara. If Santa Barbara started to use more permanent housing, there would be less homeless on the streets, and more homeless would be able to get independent housing and get a job.

To wrap it all up, those on the streets are our neighbors that are there mostly because of the high real estate. There have been many studies that prove that permanent housing is more cost effective than emergency shelters. I believe that permanent housing is the answer to ending homelessness. By raising awareness about this solution, we can solve homelessness.