WHY IS A SECURE TRANSITIONAL COMMUNITY AND SAFE PARKING AREA IMPORTANT TO NEVADA COUNTY?

What Are the Issues?

Despite the dedicated local non-profits and county teams that provide critical and compassionate services for this segment of our community, there does not exist sufficient funding nor the capacities to care for those who need a little or a lot of help, especially people who are chronically without shelter.

The great snowstorms of 2021-22 and 2023 is one serious example for the need of some kind of managed transitional village that can accommodate a much larger number of unhoused people than anything currently available in our county.

30% of the 496 surveyed ‘Chronically Homeless’ in 2023

“It’s also important to remember that these data represent the minimum count of individuals experiencing homelessness on a single night in January.” Samuel Holmes, Executive Director of the Homeless Resource Council of the Sierras. “Behind these numbers are the human experiences of people living through the trauma of homelessness. For example, (local) surveyors connected with an 81-year-old veteran living in his vehicle and over twenty families with children under the age of three.” At least 70 families are on the waiting list for the Family shelter provided by our local Salvation Army. There is only space at their family shelter for 10 families at any time.

The count also tallied 50 individuals in Nevada County who self-identified as survivors of domestic violence, 27 as veterans, 26 as unaccompanied youth, and 209 as living with a mental health disability.

People experiencing chronic homelessness are living with mental illness, substance use disorders, physical disabilities, or other medical conditions.

Unhoused women are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse. The report No Safe Place: Sexual Assault in the Lives of Homeless Women shares that the sexual victimization of women endure before, during and after episodes of homelessness remains enormously high, often occurring in multiple settings at the hands of multiple perpetrators.

Housing First Initiative

The U.S. federal government has made “Housing First” a goal rather than making emergency shelters a priority. 

Even with our county leaders and staff and local non-profits working hard to create new housing for those with no or low income as well as those with mental illness, the Housing First initiative is difficult to succeed here with such limited housing available.

And sadly, some chronically unhoused are not ready nor able to move into a permanent housing, even if housing was available.  This has been reported by landlords and motel owners.

The disruptive tenant behaviors reported can be the result of health issues, mental disorders, addictions, unemployability or simply because they have been homeless for so long that the prospect of moving “inside” can be daunting or unfamiliar. And some are simply unaware of what it takes to become a responsible tenant.

As recently shared by the National League of Cities:

“Many shelters have requirements that make them undesirable for some individuals experiencing homelessness, including sobriety requirements, entry fees, gender requirements that separate partners and families, restrictions against having pets, set entry and exit times that may be incompatible with an individual’s work hours, insufficient security, and lack of secure storage for personal belongings.

Of the 396,149 beds (in the U.S.) available to individuals currently experiencing homelessness, just 0.6 percent are provided through “safe haven” shelter locations that offer low-barriers to access. The remainder of the inventory is made up of emergency shelter beds (76 percent), which cater to very short-term stays, and transitional housing programs (23 percent). Furthermore, encampments may offer a greater sense of autonomy and security from targeted aggression, assault, theft or police harassment.

Some reports have highlighted that shelter inhabitants face assault, robbery and demeaning treatment from staff. Shelters can be particularly stressful for women experiencing homelessness, who are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.”

Impact on Our Community

The impact on the rest of our community is significant. 

• The threat of illegal camp fires is very real in our rural landscape.  Certainly, the fire in March, 2022 at the Banner Lava Cap/Highway 49 location from a homeless camp , was just steps from between the towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City. The River and Bennett fires (alsofrom camps) left loss and destruction to many. As long as the unhoused live in the woods, this threat will remain.

• Local and visiting hikers drawn to our surrounding natural beauty are disheartened by the trash, camp debris and human waste that litter our hillsides and limit access to rivers and trails.

• The health of our river water is impacted by nearby camps.

• Tourists to our county have not entered stores due to disruptive behaviors caused by those with drug, alcohol or mental disorders, many of whom are believed to be or are identified as shelterless. 

• A daily review of the police report in the local paper supports the impact of the unhoused in our towns.

Cost of Homelessness

The US Interagency Council on Homelessness estimated in 2017 (6 years ago) that the cost to communities for one chronically homeless person costs taxpayers as much as $30,000 to $50,000 per year. Current projections of costs to communities per DignityMoves is $60,000 per year per unhoused person.

Providing shelter and services for even 50 chronically homeless individuals could indicate a savings of $2 million dollars annually to our county.

These costs are typically carried by major service clusters of health care, housing and criminal justice and are born by municipalities, hospitals, counties, housing agencies and nonprofits servicing homeless people.

The 2017 report Homelessness in Orange County: The Costs to Our Community, found that the estimated average cost of services per capita for permanent supportive housing clients is 50% lower than fiscal support of the chronically street homeless.

To get people ready for permanent housing, we must embrace an effective, long-term plan.