The city manager and City Council are quiet about the Respite Center. Mum’s the word. Communication, while essential, has gone silent. Alternative narratives abound. Who knows what? Comedic, if not so tragic.
In the wake of the Grants Pass decision, the council moved forward on one front: criminalizing homelessness. Can we do better? Let us examine the possibilities.
Homelessness awaits new leadership. Too many embrace the myths and disinformation surrounding homelessness: that people are drug addicts, mentally ill, lazy, service-resistant, or that they chose to be homeless. Yes, there are those who fit that description, but they are not the majority of homeless people. Foster children, youth and seniors shatter that myth.
Characterizations are too simple. We agree the situation is exasperating, but too often we are dealing with policy decisions by government authorities who have failed. One could argue by design or incompetence. Moreover, society accepts poverty as normal, just as it accepts trillionaires. We simply want poverty to go away; we do not want to see it or be reminded of our failures.
Meanwhile, there is a housing crisis, yet we accept the low-wage economy as the norm. Meanwhile, people suffer. The unhoused are seeking to survive in a world of daily trauma. We lament their drug use but do little to address the insatiable demand for drugs across the nation. Blame Mexico, Colombia or China. Drug use is ubiquitous in Davis. We ignore that fact.
So let us bury the myths and get to the core problems: lack of housing, low wages, poverty, the ever-increasing cost of living and downright apathy. Solutions?
Poverty is solvable. We should look carefully at how we spend tax dollars. Money is squandered on consultants. Services are lacking. There is a long list of waste.
How can we solve the problem? How about a living wage to start? How about housing that is attainable? How about health care for all? Where affordability is absent, how about using some of those trillions for income-support programs?
We have been so divided over the decades, focused on self-interest, enabling the economic hierarchy to shift more wealth to itself. And the chasm grows. Until we can step outside the politics of tribes, we will not be able to resolve the problem.
The pandemic showed that targeted and thoughtful policies can lift people out of poverty. What about Davis?
The micro view of the matter might be a bit easier to unravel. It will take a thoughtful plan and several years to tackle homelessness here in Davis. Our leaders are bereft of one.
We need a thoughtful plan. It will require philanthropic measures from the entire Davis community. Shortly, the city will reveal its financial shortfalls, and we will need philanthropy to fill gaps in services.
UC Davis has a role to play. It can supply intellectual prowess across an array of challenges facing Davis in this crisis. It will require an informed and engaged citizenry.
Solutions?
Let us agree that the present situation is unacceptable. Blame less those who are suffering and engage more to get the job done. Engagement requires that the larger community meet and discuss the present situation.
There are many wonderful providers of services and care in Davis. Together, we can share our respective areas of expertise to overcome the scourge of homelessness.
And what about the City of Davis?
If you have been paying attention over the last several years, you might note the city’s lackluster homelessness policy. Jobs for staff, to be sure. Services to get folks off the streets? Sweeps, yes, but few services.
Yes, it is a difficult job. At this point, however, the city has lost its way. Communication has been absent for months. The Respite Center is emblematic of the ongoing crisis.
Residents in the Manor neighborhood sought to help the city define its decision-making process and act with greater transparency, but to little avail. In November 2025, some residents pointed out that the city lacked appropriate metrics, measurable outcomes and sufficient data to make good decisions. The sitting mayor acknowledged those shortcomings.
At the Feb. 17 meeting, the council decided to punt again, offering little substance. Alas, the latest meeting found the city had made no progress in its thinking.
The Respite Center staff are doing their best. Yet the City Council and city manager continue to dither. The decision has been postponed until the end of the fiscal year.
The most revealing loss of reality is the notion that our unhoused population could simply be bused to Woodland’s Fourth & Hope shelter. Really?
Clearly, the council is adrift. Our city manager brought Oakland experience, but little from that experience has translated into effective action here to date.
Hence, it is time for the people of Davis to demand alternatives to a city that continues to offer woefully inadequate solutions rooted in crime and punishment.
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As the county seat, Woodland is in a much-better position (and has a lot more vacant land) than Davis has to accommodate homeless services (especially living quarters). And they’re already doing so, in more than one location.
West Sacramento is also a good location, due to some of the same reasons (e.g., cheaper place than Davis – with more vacant land), as well as its proximity to Sacramento itself.
Let the cities which can handle this do so. Even those cities run out of funding way-before the problems are actually solved. Why make it harder and more-expensive to address those problems?
I mean sure – you could put a homeless shelter in Tiburon and Atherton (while incurring a lot of resistance and extra expense), but that doesn’t help anyone.