Homeless in Hillcrest: Why the ‘Care not Cash’ approach just isn’t working

“At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we received, how much money we made or how many great things we have done. I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.” –Mother Theresa.

Home. There’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. Home for the holidays. Home alone! Mi Casa Su Casa.

The word “home” is a word spoken several times a day for the person who has one.” “I’m going home”, “Meet me at home”, “Honey, I’m on my way home”, “Lucy, I’m home”, etc. Often, home is a feeling and not a place, although it can often times be both. The physical place produces the feeling of home, a feeling of familiarity, safety, warmth and love.

Yet so many in our LGBT community don’t know home, and, believe it or not, far too many are our youth. Having been kicked out of their homes because they came out as gay or were considered to be somehow a threat to their fearful parents, thinking that somehow it would be a reflection on themselves that they had a gay or transgendered child.

In addition, many of our LGBT youth were excommunicated from their families when marriage became legal in their state and finally nationwide. Many of them migrate to California for the weather and population of LGBTs. After all, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego have some of the most populated LGBT cities in the country, not to mention California’s dreamy weather, especially if one has no place to go.

I am both proud and humbled concurrently to say when I mention these situations to my 90-year- old Dad, his blood boils and he is saddened by these people, who could somehow find it in themselves to be so cruel to their own children. In this case, the acorn did not fall far from the tree. Our transgendered community continues to be victims of homelessness for a myriad of reasons, none that are acceptable to me. When I say victims, I mean victims.

Many people know I have a soft spot when it comes to the homeless. More than likely because no matter what my adventures were most of my exciting and sometimes failing life, the parental provided door was always open and I never felt totally alone in this world. Lucky.

Here in the United States of America, we often go to war to protect others, or are the first ones to send aid to countries far less fortunate than our own in times of crisis, natural disasters, poverty and war. We talk a good game and a great deal about standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves, for selective reasons.

Yet the current sentiment, at least in San Diego toward the homeless is “don’t feed the homeless”, “don’t give money to the homeless” and, at the same time having compassion for our most vulnerable neighbors without a home. Society can be measured by the justice and humaneness it treats its most vulnerable neighbors. In light of that, how do we think America’s finest city is treating this group?

The whole “Care Not Cash” approach was Tom Ammiano/Gavin Newsome Proposition (N) that failed miserably in San Francisco years ago and tripled homelessness. I was there and it was a fiasco.

Let’s face it, it’s an easy concept to get behind. I’d love to give everybody housing, medicine and food. Sign me up! Good intentions, but a major fail. Which then poses the age old question, what is the answer?

First, I’m a big fan of the idea that in order to come up with the answer, we need to examine the question a little more. I think if San Diego wants to solve the homeless problem with “Care not Cash” it first needs to prove it works! Then, and only then, should we stand behind it. Do we really have the systems in place to support cutting off cash to the homeless and promoting our citizens do the same? Seems like a dangerous proposition to me.

Secondly, the ever increasing issue of the mental health crisis in the United States. We must acknowledge that we are indeed in a crisis and quit blaming President Obama for everything. The mental health issue of drug addiction continues to go underfunded by our governments. Here in San Diego, the phrases “waiting list” and “drug treatment” should never, ever go hand in hand. The ramifications of mental health and HIV transmission do not have a waiting list.

In fact, at the recent World AIDS Day tree lighting ceremony here in San Diego, not one of the many ceremonious speeches from numerous community leaders including the director of the Office of AIDS Co-Ordination, ever mentioned the need for increased services for drug treatment, or needle exchange programs as a means of ending HIV infection. Not one! This of course just a block away from the Club San Diego bathhouse, a breeding ground for new HIV infection, categorized by the city as a “health club” which continues to operate. Talk about “And the band played on …”

One of my observations and common denominator in my conversations with both the homeless and our City leaders is one end of our society wants the other end to be more like them.

The homeless I speak to are not interested in “being somebody” because most of them believe they already are, and I must say I agree. Just ask them. Not all who wander are lost. By the way, it remains illegal in San Diego for anyone who is homeless to do anything but keep walking. Anything less is a violation of some city code or ordinance and is technically against the law. How convenient.

Has anyone actually seen a decrease in homelessness in Hillcrest? The Hillcrest Business Association reports taking some 686 people off the streets. Really? I think it’s called fudging the numbers. I wonder exactly where did these people go and how many of them were successfully “rehabilitated”. I spoke with the Hillcrest Business Association and they said they derive the numbers from The Alpha Project. I sure don’t see nearly 700 homeless suddenly missing from the streets of Hillcrest, do you? Often times the trail goes cold due to the confidentiality rights of the individual. Let me just say in my experience, there’s always a fine line between confidentiality and secrecy.

Moreover, if we are so good at it, and have the resources and systems in place to overcome homelessness to the degree of shouting from the top of city hall, DON’T FEED OR GIVE MONEY TO THE HOMELESS, why doesn’t it reflect in the streets? The matrix systems in place are designed to steer individuals toward Father Joe’s Village. To some, a tough love strategy. Makes sense right? I couldn’t disagree more.

There are basic human dignity rights and issues that plague all of us. When Bob Filner became mayor, one of the first actions he took was to open restrooms at particular points in the city as a public health issue. With all of Filner’s human imperfections, he started out his administration with a bang by closing the public restrooms at night as a safety issue. Just where were the homeless to go to relieve themselves between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.? What about women’s issues and transgender issues? Let’s place ourselves in that position shall we? Who’s in a quandary with me?

Doesn’t it make perfect sense to provide an open bathroom for our residents? At the very least? You cannot convince me that we are somehow a compassionate society by forcing our most vulnerable citizen’s to defecate in public. Don’t we all use the canyons and pubic walking paths for our children and our dogs to explore? The police department’s excuse has been that more problems would develop in the bathrooms as a result. More dangerous than public defecation? Safer? C’mon, nonsense!

After pressing the issue, I got an email from Todd Gloria’s office informing me that a bathroom at Father Joe’s Village would be opening in December. A holiday gesture to the citizens of San Diego! Happy Holidays !

We are more concerned about abandoned dogs than we are about abandoned people. We are more concerned with dog poo than we are people poo. Let us stand on the corner and hold a lost puppy, and we will get more community response and individuals ready to rescue, take them home, and money for animal welfare than people welfare! The SDPD says you can’t help someone who does not want to be helped. Who came up with that idea? Yes, you can! We need to change what our definition is of helping. Just help! Doesn’t everyone in our society deserve a meal and a warm blanket? YES!

The city’s services and its leaders are supposed to step up to the needs for all the people, and respond to what is, not what some want it to be, or what looks nice to a Camelot seeking tourist. It’s the land of make believe all right.

This notion of we will help you only if you help yourself to become more like us has got to be re-evaluated, at the very least. Don’t take my word for it. Ask the homeless yourself what the issues are and why for God’s sake they are not standing in line at Father Joe’s. Granted, some are, but most are not. It’s not for everyone. While being a not so perfect shelter, it must be an awesome tax shelter.

After attending this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, I thought to myself, this reminds me of the early days, when I was younger. Wait a minute! It’s 40 years later! We’re still talking about rape! Murder! It’s just a shot away! Many in our community will die on the streets every year, every day in fact, from violence, illness or suicide, especially in the transgendered community.

I personally am not transgendered although to some extent aren’t we all transgendered? Think about that one for a minute. I can tell you one thing, of all the things I can think of on opposite sides of the spectrum, telling another individual they have to defecate in a plastic local grocery store bag in public, or somewhere like an animal in the woods, then find a place to dispose of it because they had your family’s safety in mind, is unacceptable in any society on any level. Then, have the audacity to complain about the garbage they leave behind. Are you kidding me?

As any social worker or therapist or anyone working in the mental health field will tell you, it is of primary importance to gain the trust of the individual you are seeking to help, if they need it. My question is who would trust a government who would allow them to be homeless in the first place. For the record, the defense rests.

In all fairness, Toni Atkins and Todd Gloria have done more for homelessness in San Diego, than anyone before them. I find them extremely passionate individuals as well as great administrators of that passion. The two rarely go hand in hand.

However, without the help and co-operation of the entire government, meaning locally, statewide and federally, to protect and serve this population, progress is slow. Too slow.

We seem to agree on one principal, much like homeless outreach itself; sometimes you have to fit in to get in. Funny, politics and street politics are one in the same, one no more dangerous than the other.

Persistence is what I see; which to me is the key to any successful change. If we can’t at least get the bathrooms open at night as a common sense approach to safety, much less a common decency and compassionate gesture, how can we expect a “Care not Cash” approach to be taken seriously, much less effective.