There will never be a single fix to homelessness in Sonoma County. This is not a new issue. I married a homeless man here in 1969 and stayed in touch with him until his death in 2004. His story may be typical of many of the people we see sitting or sleeping on our streets today. Brad wandered in and out of employment, settled housing, substance abuse and responsible citizenship throughout his 65-year life. No one lifestyle would have been satisfactory to him during all stages. Some would characterize him as a saint, some a villain at different times.
Brad’s life teaches us that we will never find one cure-all to either voluntary or involuntary nomadism. Rather, we who control the majority of the economic resources in Sonoma County need to offer a broad and flexible spectrum of support and services to our less conventional neighbors. There will always be “travellers”, “gypsies” and “hoboes” camped among us. These people are voluntary nomads and we need to leave space between our settlements for them. There will be others who lack the mental, physical or emotional wherewithal to survive independently if left to themselves. We will have to let them die or care for them in families and involuntary institutions. Between these extremes are people who have suffered what can be temporary setbacks – – economic shocks, poor health, accidental injury or recoverable addiction. Our standard social service interventions can and do offer many of them the hand up they need to rejoin the mainstream.
We also need to keep generating new, socially acceptable habitats and lifestyles as conditions and technologies change. Certainly affordable housing is a necessary part of the mix. Yes, there are a few criminals among the homeless who would steal and batter regardless of where they sleep. But most are simply unlucky. So let’s stop looking for one silver bullet. Let’s stop expecting that a one-time grant will buy us out of this problem. If each of us picks one way we can reach out to someone less fortunate and acts on that, perhaps directly and personally, perhaps anonymously, we can unleash the resources to reclaim our streets and public spaces.