Editorial: Marin needs to stick with ‘Housing First’ approach

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order to clear homeless encampments from state property sets the stage for municipalities to follow his lead.

It is not time, however, for Marin to abandon its “Housing First” strategies that have proven effective in ending the spiral of homelessness for many.

According to county statistics, more than 750 homeless people have been placed in housing under the countywide Housing First initiatives.

A recent survey of campers along San Rafael’s Mahon Creek Path encampment showed that most of those who answered are interested in getting out of their tents and finding permanent housing.

The downside of Housing First is that Marin doesn’t have enough housing to meet the need.

There are projects underway to help address the issue.

For campers along Mahon Creek, in Novato’s downtown park or along Binford Road, the public, which has grown frustrated and weary of seeing tent and RV encampments, and local officials, who have been searching for effective answers to this social dilemma (if not a crisis), those apartments cannot be finished and available soon enough.

You can count Newsom among those officials who have been searching for solutions.

Over the past several years, the state has spent an astronomical amount – $24 billion by Newsom’s count – seeking humane solutions to homelessness. They include grants for local municipalities to acquire housing and support for local initiatives to get campers off the street and out of parks.

The option of clearing encampments, enforcing local “no camping” rules or parking limits, has been hampered by a federal court ruling that legally tied municipalities’ hands, prohibiting enforcement unless other shelter or housing is available. The rise of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and lawsuits further complicated the quandary. In June, with a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court gave state and local officials more power to remove encampments, even if those campers have nowhere else to go.

As San Rafael has found, so-called “sweeps” of encampments are a limited solution; campers just move to another location. Instead, later this month, the city has plans to continue discussions about creating a sanctioned encampment using part of the Mahon Creek Path area.

The county’s situation on Binford Road, where the number of camped RVs once exceeded 100, is partly the result of banning overnight parking in other parts of the county. The campers just moved and parked in another location, Binford – almost over the county line.

Newsom’s order calls for a humane approach in clearing encampments; providing plenty of notice to campers, social service counseling and temporary storage of their belongings.

What it comes up with in short supply is providing available and affordable housing.

Local officials say they intend to continue their housing-first strategy, moving campers off the street and into housing.

Newsom’s order provides them with a tool, but they should continue to focus on connecting with people who want to get out of tents or RVs and into safer, healthier and more-secure housing.

That doesn’t mean officials should turn a blind eye to illegal structures, unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Local leaders’ responsibility to protect the health, safety and welfare of the community includes both the housed and unhoused. Problems with crime and the loss for others to their right for enjoying public parkland should not be ignored.

Newsom’s order should be a last resort. It may be needed to address campers who stubbornly refuse opportunities to move into housing.

For many, Marin’s Housing First strategies appear to be working, albeit slowly.

Christine Paquette, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin – a longtime provider of meals and services to local homeless –  framed Marin’s approach nicely that across our county “we have more effective, humane solutions that do not entail bulldozers and arrests.”