Progress is important and to see that local homeless providers are feeding less people than last year is a good indicator, but what remains is the public’s expectation that they can venture out into their neighborhood shopping areas, parks, open space or their part of the American River Parkway and feel safe.
Feeling safe is partly dependent upon a contract between the public and public safety departments that public space is reserved for legitimate use by residents of the community, and illegitimate use (camping/sleeping in public, aggressive panhandling, using public space as a bathroom) results in sanctions, preventative sanctions.
Editorial: Progress, slow progress
Here and nationally, homelessness wanes
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, November 12, 2007
Almost overnight, a vast homeless camp sprang up recently on vacant land north of downtown. In the gentrifying neighborhoods of the center city, an endless stream of homeless people can be seen huddled in doorways or trundling by pushing grocery carts.
To the weary public, homelessness looks intractable. It is not. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week announced "a 12 percent decline in the number of persons experiencing chronic homelessness in the nation." Based on homeless counts that took place in 3,900 cities across the country, the number of chronic homeless fell from 175,914 in 2005 to 155,623 in in 2006.
Loaves and Fishes, the private charity that feeds homeless people in Sacramento, reports the number of diners at its facility, half of whom are chronically homeless, has been trending down for years, from 907 a day in the mid-90s to about 460 a day now.
