Life is not easy for H. She is 85 and legally blind, and lives on Social Security checks that come each month. Those checks cover hotels for a time, but don’t last long. H. – the Weekly is using her initial only, to protect her privacy – is also known to have behavioral issues. She’s mean to people, including those who are trying to help her, and including multiple hotels that have kicked her out for verbally abusing staff or other guests. It means that partway through the month she ends up without a place to live, and on the street she might have a police interaction. More than once they’ve placed her under a 5150 hold, a reference to the California Welfare and Institutions Code that allows adults experiencing a mental health crisis to be detained for up to 72 hours in a psychiatric hospitalization. When it ends, she is on the street again, and the cycle repeats.
It has repeated at least twice in recent months, according to Anastacia Wyatt, housing program manager for the city of Pacific Grove, who has worked with H. Wyatt helped get her enrolled in Project Roomkey, a state program that provides temporary lodging in hotels, to at least get a roof over her head – but after a few months, she was kicked out of the Marina Roomkey site for bad behavior.
So the cycle repeated, and H. was released from a 5150 hold on June 3. Wyatt and others who have worked with her haven’t seen her since.
Her story – of bouncing around from temporary shelter to police to hospitalizations to the streets and then back again – is not uncommon among chronically homeless people. While many people without housing are grateful for any help they can get, there are people who are just difficult, whether due to mental illness, years of living on the street, or a combination. H. has refused numerous services available to her, and so far, at least, she’s been deemed able to make her own decisions – even if they are reckless decisions that endanger her. So she’s not a candidate for conservatorship, in which the government appoints a caretaker to make decisions on behalf of the “gravely disabled” conserved person.
“I don’t blame anyone,” Wyatt says. “But at the same time, where are the services? She is going to keep getting bounced around in our community. If we don’t solve her problems, she is going to cost us a fortune as a community, and not get what she truly needs. What do we do, let her stay on the street and let her die?”
In some ways, the collective societal answer is yes.
But there is momentum from Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers to give more power to the government in the treatment of chronically homeless people, including increasing conservatorships.
There is a policy pendulum that swings when it comes to how much we protect the rights of people with mental illness and how much we choose to intervene. Images of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest come to mind as the worst-case, heavy-handed state intervention – depriving adults of any ability to make choices for themselves about their health and housing raises questions.
“I am conflicted,” says Monterey County Behavioral Health Bureau Chief Katy Eckert. “I do think it is a very serious thing to take people’s civil rights away – that is a grave concern to me. I also see that there are individuals who definitely need help, and so far what we have been able to provide has not been successful.”
In the case of someone like H., who has rejected or alienated most efforts to help her, it might be successful. Under current law, Eckert says, “She has to agree to want treatment, want help – or she has to devolve to the point where she meets the legal standard for us to be able to make her choices for her.”
There is no count of how many chronically homeless people there are in Monterey County who refuse services, but there are others like H. who for whatever reasons continue to reject them.
“People have to be willing to accept services,” Eckert adds. “If someone chooses to not take us up on that, then truly we don’t have other recourse.”
That makes it sound to me like we need other recourse – without getting too heavy-handed, we need to get help to people who need it.
(2) comments
I agree with Trish and want to just add that many of the homeless that reject help are afraid of being locked away somewhere. Those with pets fear being separated from them as most of the shelters don't allow pets. I made a suggestion long ago to construct a campsite as a temporary place to live until other options became available. No one seems to have a better idea ,but still rejected that idea. I'm not talking about a camp that resembles something from a war zone. I'm talking about a campsite like a family on vacation would go to. Something like a KOA camp with a personal space for each camper that they could set up and not have to be moved from place. a community restroom with showers that could be easily hosed out daily and kept sanitary . Each campsite would have a fire pit to cook on . They would need a standard camping tent. No palette or cardboard shanties. There would be dumpsters for waist with pick up service. A pet area just like travel centers provide and perhaps a simple playground. This would give the homless a chance to regain their dignity. a place to call home, and i'd be willing to bet that some of those Mental issues would disappear on there own. Imagine how your mind would function with no place to be , no place to wash your face or even use the restroom.
This would also be faster to construct, less money than building a structure, easier to maintain and less monthly expense.
Many will argue that it would never work, insurance issues, this , and that. But I ask you this: What are the Homeless doing right now? How could it possibly be worse?
These are some of the solutions provided to the Salinas Mayor and City Manager - a fairly detailed plan to build workforce housing, provide addiction/mental health treatment, and a 'housing first' solution to 'mobile homeless' individuals (these folks have jobs but live in a vehicle) - even down to the properties and types of structures needed.
It would entail a public-private partnership that encourages community investment in the solutions. It involves throwing out the 'onion' that the homeless industrial complex always talks about, how it is so difficult to 'peel back the layers' in order get anything of actual value accomplished for the people who are suffering on the street or from unaffordable (more than 2/3 of monthly income) housing. The plan is three-pronged:
1) Campground & RV Park charging on a sliding scale with bathrooms, showers, a kitchen, and garbage service. Security and safe storage provided.
2) "Pallet" brand homes used to house and treat mentally ill and addicted individuals to keep them out of jails and hospitals - costing taxpayers much more than providing housing/treatment.
3) Workforce Housing built with community investment - tiny home "neighborhoods" zoned as trailer parks that look great, and house the people who currently cannot afford to live here, yet our economy depends on these low-income workers: teachers, restaurant, retail, agricultural, hospitality, even tradespeople!
These are rather simple solutions that seem impossible due to the policy of reactive rather than proactive response to the dire situation faced by many local residents. When housing takes up 90% of ones income (as mine does) the choices to eat or pay bills are difficult and stressful. Happy to share the detailed plan with anyone who is interested in actually solving the problems that low income people (who are desperately needed in our economy and communities), homeless, mentally ill and addicted residents face every day.
Rather that 'sweeping' them out, let's 'gather' our residents in (Amor Salinas) and help them succeed. It's a hand up not a hand out!
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