Lake Offers Arizona A New Approach To Homelessness

Kari Lake, Arizona’s Republican nominee for governor, released a comprehensive plan for how the state can take on its homelessness crisis. Her solutions are a breath of fresh air and stand in stark contrast to the failed policies pushed by the federal government, California, and Phoenix.

More than 500 homeless people died on Phoenix’s streets in the first half of 2022—which means the city is on the path to earn the unfortunate title of the deadliest city for the homeless in America. Most of these deaths were caused by drug use, but one in ten were homicides. For context, Los Angeles sees around 2,000 homeless deaths a year, with a metro homelessness population more than six times higher than Phoenix’s.

Lake highlights many cases of the violent crimes committed by homeless individuals. And while the homeless are at elevated risk to be victimized by crime, the perpetrators are mostly their homeless peers. As she writes, “The common denominator in these crimes are homeless individuals with uncompensated Severe Mental Illness, Diagnosed Substance Abuse (DSA) issues, or a combination of the two.” Given that three-quarters of the homeless living on the streets suffer from serious mental illness, three-quarters are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and the majority have both afflictions, Lake is correct to focus on the underlying conditions that cause homelessness.

The first step to tackling homelessness is to clean up the streets. As Lake writes, “By enabling chronic street homelessness as a lifestyle, providers and politicians are creating more of it.” Her plan details how the state can build enough shelter options so that law enforcement can enforce local ordinances that prohibit street camping. It also lays out a detailed process for how these individuals will move through various voluntary or mandatory treatment programs. Her plan makes it clear that homeless individuals choosing to stay on the streets, and the associated waste, disease, and violence that ruins neighborhoods and leads to homeless deaths, will no longer be encouraged—or even tolerated—in Arizona.

While nonprofits and localities that benefit financially from the worsening homelessness crisis argue that Lake’s plan criminalizes homelessness, it is not compassionate to allow mentally ill, addicted individuals to suffer and die on the streets. Thankfully, Lake’s position is viewed as commonsense by Arizonans. A Cicero Institute poll of Arizona voters found that eight in ten want the state to ban street camping. Both support and strong support for banning street camping was higher for Hispanics and African Americans than it was for whites.

Support was even stronger when voters were asked to choose if it was better for the government to “prioritize moving homeless individuals from the streets to local shelters or low-cost designated camping facilities where there is required participation in treatment or other services,” or to “prioritize providing homeless individuals living on the streets with permanent housing with free rent, with no requirements for sobriety or treatment.” The poll found 84 percent chose shelters and mandatory treatment whereas only 7 percent chose permanent housing with no required treatment.

Given these overwhelming results, most Arizonans would likely find it surprising that the unpopular approach of offering Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) to solve homelessness has been mandated by the federal government for nearly a decade. And most states have relied on this failed approach. For example, Arizona has created more than 7,000 permanent homes for the homeless since 2010, which is more than enough to house every person who was living on the streets at the time. But since then, the number of homeless individuals living on the streets has increased by more than 50 percent. Cities across the country have seen similar terrible results, most notably San Francisco.

The federal PSH funding model actually rewards people for committing crimes and using drugs by moving them up in housing priority. Making matters worse, there are no requirements for mental health or addiction treatment for those in PSH. With the root causes of homelessness left untreated, is it any wonder that the National Academy of Sciences determined, “there is no substantial published evidence as yet to demonstrate that PSH improves health outcomes.” Thankfully, Lake firmly comes down on the side of “treatment-first” instead of “housing-first.”

Housing first was started under the George W. Bush Administration, before it was expanded and mandated under President Obama. Just as there was a bipartisan consensus to try this approach, now there is a bipartisan push to change tactics. Homelessness reform bills in Missouri, Texas, and Utah that move people off the streets and focus state funding on shelter and treatment over free housing all recently became law with support from both sides of the aisle. And even California, the poster child for why housing first fails, is allocating additional funds to short-term shelter options and clearing street encampments.

This spring, the Arizona Senate passed a bipartisan bill that would have directed new state funding to temporary shelter options, with the funding conditioned on localities enforcing their bans on street camping. The bill did not make it through the House, but Lake’s proposed framework will strengthen the bill if it is reintroduced in 2023.

Lake is not the only Republican demanding a change to the homelessness status quo. This summer, President Trump talked about homelessness during his policy address in Washington, DC. And Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY) introduced a bill last year to end the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s exclusive reliance on housing first.

President Trump summarized his policy prescriptions by stating, “The homeless need to go to shelters, the long term mentally ill need to go to institutions, and the unhoused drug addicts need to go to rehab.” Lake’s comprehensive plan shares the same goals and provides the necessary roadmap for Arizona to turn the tide on homelessness.