Commentary: A Flash to 2006 on the Housing Crisis and Homelessness Is Revealing

Photo by Ev on Unsplash

By David M. Greenwald
Executive Editor

It was really interesting, I saw an op-ed from CalMatters entitled “Feds must step up on homelessness,” seemed like an article I should and so I googled it.  I found the recent op-ed by CalMatters.

But at the same time, I found a news report in the East Bay Times, “Study: Feds must step up to help homeless.”

Almost the exact same title, except for one amazing fact – the East Bay Times one was from November 2006!  Almost 17 years ago to the day.

The similarities of course don’t end there.

Here is what the 2023 article argues:“The latest Annual Homelessness Assessment Report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said that 653,100 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January, a 12% increase since last year. California counted 181,399 homeless people, the most of any state.”

Margot Kushel, who directed the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative which came out with the report last year was the author.

That report found “homelessness rates are tied to the disconnect between income and housing costs for the lowest-income households. California has only 24 units of housing available and affordable for every 100 extremely low-income households. “

Overall she concluded, “These numbers are devastating but expected.”

She concludes, “Increased federal funding is necessary, but not sufficient. Yet without it, it will be difficult to end homelessness.  This crisis is solvable. Ensuring that people have housing that they can afford – through higher income, lower rents and dedicated rental assistance, as well as access to appropriate services – is essential.

“With 653,100 people languishing in streets and shelters every night this country, this is the time for policymakers in Congress to do their part by allocating the funds needed so all Americans have a place to call home.”

Then I looked at thee 2006 article and shockingly except for the dates, it might as well have been written today.

The lede: “The nation’s homeless epidemic won’t be cured without a significant federal investment in affordable housing, advocates charged in a report released Tuesday. “

That could have been written today.

“We feel strongly that the documentation supports, for 23 years, that we have been attempting to address homelessness without housing,” said Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, which authored the report.

Perhaps the difference in the two articles—the years.

The 2006 article notes, “The federal government made massive cuts to housing programs in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and a homeless epidemic soon followed, the report’s authors said. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget has dropped 65 percent from its most recent height, in 1978, to this year.”

But now we flash back to the future: “But instead of solving the problems by building housing, the federal government helped to set up shelters and other temporary solutions that didn’t solve the problem, the report’s authors charged.”

It continues, “Boden said recent efforts to provide permanent housing with services are a good start, but not enough to solve the problem. And dramatic drops in the housing available to homeless people is making it worse.”

And this: “The nation’s homeless czar, who was in the Bay Area this week, agreed that more housing is needed. But he said advocates have failed in their efforts to get it.”

As we now know, things would only get worse with the subprime crisis, the great recession, and what’s happened to housing in California which has exploded the housing crisis and homelessness.

Maybe we ought to be looking back to the 1970s and what has failed to work over the last 40 to 50 years.

But it seems like we knew the solution 17 years ago, it’s the same as today, we just have failed to get it.

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