End Homelessness Now With Housing First
Over half a million people are homeless in the United States, according to the national Annual Homeless Assessment Report. Seventy-five thousand homeless people live in Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Times. Over thirteen and a half million people have been homeless at some point in their life in the United States. "Housing First" permanently houses homeless people immediately. Congress has six trillion dollars a year to spend, every year. We need to use a very small portion of that to end homelessness in the United States. We gave one-hundred and twenty billion dollars to Ukraine in the last two years, with plans to give them even more. We only need twenty billion dollars to end homelessness here in the United States. Congress gave almost ten billion dollars to Israel recently, with plans to give them even more. We should be using that money to address problems right here at home. We need money to end homelessness, poverty, and hunger in the United States. The money is there, congress has six trillion dollars to spend, every year, on whatever they want. We need emergency funding from congress to resolve this national crises.
The American People Deserve Better
Finland has absolutely no homeless people in the entire country because they have "Housing First". The state of Utah has adopted the "Housing First" model at the statewide level. I support "Housing First" and will apply it at the national level. The "Housing First" approach focuses on getting homeless people into stable homes before addressing mental health, substance abuse issues, and other needs. The City of Montebello in Los Angeles County, has a different program to house homeless people. They built thirty, sixty-four square foot, tiny homes, to immediately house homeless people. Programs Like the one in Montebello might work but the real solution is "Housing First" like they have in Finland and in Utah.
Immediate & Permanent Housing
According to the city of Fullerton website, the city of Fullerton, in Orange County, California, has approximately two-thousand unoccupied housing units. This means 2,000 houses, apartments, and mobile homes are vacant and no one lives in them. Two-thousand empty homes. At least 200 homeless people live in Fullerton. How can we have 200 homeless people, living in the streets, In the same city that has two-thousand unoccupied housing units? We need, maybe, ten percent of those unoccupied homes to immediately end homelessness in the city of Fullerton. I believe in "Housing First" at the national level. I will bring funding from congress to permanently house homeless people, immediately, across the nation. Then address any mental health or substance abuse issues after we permanently house everyone. "Housing First" will also reduce crime, nationwide.
