Homeless people are not the problem. They are the symptom. The problem is that we, as a society, just don’t care.

Apparently, it’s okay that we have people living – and dying – in the woods, in the streets and alleys, in their cars, and other places outside in the weather.

We are the richest, most powerful nation on earth, yet we don’t take care of our own people. We have a system of government and economy that carelessly creates homelessness with low wages, high rents and not enough housing.

Homeless and unhoused people are victims of this heartless system. This system creates homelessness – and then blames its victims for being homeless. We can’t expect the system that caused homelessness to fix homelessness … because, obviously, it isn’t.

The system puts profit over people. We must put  people over profit. And we must do it with love and compassion.

What works?

Punishing homeless people with jail, forced treatment, societal stigma, substandard housing and ghettoizing them as second-class citizens doesn’t work.

Love and compassion are what bring people out of homelessness. I’ve learned this over the last 16 years from my boots-on-the-ground work with Hospitality House, SPIRIT Peer Empowerment Center, Sierra Roots and now, the No Place To Go Project. These are some of the frontline NGOs (nonprofit, non-governmental organizations) serving homeless people in Western Nevada County.

Love and, compassion are what works – but it takes time and patience. Especially with chronically homeless people who have no reason to trust us. It’s damn hard work. We must be at our best when our clients are at their worst.

We know what works, but we don’t have the money, resources, trained people – much less the political will from our governments (federal, state, local) – to commit to solving our homeless/housing crisis. Besides the massive amount of money, resources and people necessary, society itself must change its attitude from despising homeless people to rescuing them.

It starts with no longer saying “the homeless.” We must recognize them as “our homeless.” Until we own the homeless problem, we are the problem.

invisible people

To me, homeless is homeless. I’ve been there. If you don’t have a safe place to sleep, cook a meal or go to the bathroom, you’re homeless.

Nevertheless, there’s a difference between the almost-feral lifestyles of chronically homeless folks subsisting on the streets versus the more presentable unhoused people who walk among us. They just can’t find or afford a place to live.

Chronically homeless people are the lost souls you pretend you don’t see on the streets. No eye contact, no social interaction. International homeless advocate Mark Horvath calls them the “invisible people.”

Unhoused homeless people are also invisible for a different reason. They do their best to present themselves as normal despite their lives of quiet desperation.

A store clerk; the teenager who fixes your computer; your favorite musician; that sweet, well-dressed church volunteer; the kids’ soccer coach – each of them could be homeless. Living in their car, couch surfing, sleeping in a garage or on the ground in a hidden tent.

We the people

Everybody deserves a safe place to call home. It’s a human right. But you can’t put chronically homeless people into housing without close support because they tend to bring drugs, violence and property damage. These are broken people, victims of the system.

Others are, like me, turnkey tenants. All we need is a place we can afford so we can get on with our lives and dreams.

To me, an obvious, partial solution is to let unhoused, housing-ready people live in RVs & trailers on the free market because so many people already do. Homes on wheels are the only safe and affordable housing out there right now.

That’s why we at the No Place To Go Project  worked for years to persuade the Nevada County  Board of Supervisors to direct staff  to write an ordinance permitting housing-ready people to live in RVs & trailers. (We have different plans for chronically homeless people.)

On March 10 of this year, the supervisors were poised to vote on the proposed ordinance, but they – with the exception of Supervisor Heidi Hall – caved to the fear, ignorance, prejudice and threats of lawsuits from people opposed to giving unhoused people the human right to safe, affordable housing.

Ignoring the reality that living in RVs is a long-established way of life in Nevada County, the opposition claims such an ordinance would ruin the county. No. The ordinance would have preserved our rural way of  life against the opposition’s desire to gentrify Nevada County.

RVs, trailers and even converted school buses have long been entry-level and last-resort housing for many county residents. According to the county’s own survey last year, 72% of county residents believe people should be allowed to live in RVs & trailers.

Regardless, the supervisors voted March 10 to tell staff to revise the ordinance to make it so restrictive and expensive that hardly anybody would qualify – or want – to comply with the proposed ordinance.

Rather than respond to the will of the people, the supervisors have ordered up a revised ordinance clearly designed to prevent people from living in RVs on private property. (www.nevadacountyca.gov/4102/Alternative-HousingRV-Dwelling)

You would think the opposition would support this ordinance.

We don’t. Although the No Place To Go Project has led the effort for this ordinance, we have informed the supervisors and staff that we do not consider this revised ordinance, as written, to be responsive to the needs of either tenants or landlords.

We cannot, in good conscience, support this counterproductive, proposed regulation. (To see our objections, see “Dealbreakers” under the “Talking Points” tab on www.NoPlaceToGoProject.org website.)

If the ordinance is passed on July 28, the supervisors can congratulate themselves on creating paper housing for unhoused people. The ordinance may look good on paper, but it will not create actual housing on the ground.

Essentially, without support from the opposition or the people who brought the idea to them, the supervisors have wasted more than a year of staff time and taxpayer money accomplishing nothing.

Letting people live in RVs and trailers is still a good idea. It’s not like there’s a better option out there that presents a right-here, right-now solution to our  homeless/housing crisis.

We were hoping the supervisors would vote to do the right thing, but unless the supervisors reject the dealbreaker provisions of the revised ordinance, it looks like we’re going to have to take it to a vote of the people.

Already, we are working to form a grassroots coalition of nonprofits, civic organizations and concerned citizens to take this progressive solution to an actual vote of the people via a ballot initiative. Stay tuned.

Tom Durkin is the executive director of  the No Place To Go Project, a nonprofit organization using the creative arts to advocate social justice for at-risk and unhoused/homeless people. Donations are tax-deductible and gratefully appreciated. Durkin may be contacted at tom@noplacetogoproject.org.