Discussing Sacramento's Homeless Population
SacTV.com "Video of the Day" review by
Alex Cosper on Feb. 19, 2012
Sacramento's homeless situation grew from various streams. Managing Attorney Bill Kennedy
from Legal Services of Northern California and the American Leadership Forum, explains
how government decisions and economic conditions led to the crisis.
KVIE's Scott Syphax reports that Sacramento had an estimated 4,200 homeless individuals
in 2011 when the interview was done. Kennedy says the chronic homeless population, which included
people who have been homeless for over a decade, has actually decreased since 2007.
The closure of state
mental hospitals in the late 60s, for example, put mentally ill people on the
streets, according to Kennedy. Kennedy says this wave of homelessness was fallowed
by a stream of homelessness created when veterans returning from Vietnam were not provided care
for post-traumatic stress disorder, which was not recognized by the Veteran's Administration
as a problem. Another homeless stream of homelessness emerged with the reduction of
affordable single room housing for disabled people Downtown fell from 3,000 to 700 units.
In recent years women and children whose welfare has expired have been victims of homelessness.
Kennedy warns that homelessness may expand when 190,000 troops return home from the Middle East, in which
30% of women returning could face homelessness. Ginger Rutland of the Sacramento Bee explains that
part of the problem of homelessness is housing programs don't want to admit people with alcohol
problems, yet they need to be in a sober environment first.
Sacramento County recieved $8 million from federal government funding last decade to create the
Housing First Project. This
Sacramento Press article recently reported that the homeless populuation
in Sacramento had decreased from 2007 to 2011 in which local officials credit the
Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, a partnership between government and
private agencies.
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