When the heads of three huge federal government departments come to town, the Health and Human Services Secretary, the Housing and Urban Development Secretary and the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, it has to be important.
As we have been reporting, that’s what happened Wednesday at the San Diego Rescue Mission’s National City location, where a blueprint for solving the homeless problem was laid out.
As you have heard, it stresses treatment of mental health and addiction problems over housing for the homeless.
The problem is, a lot of experts say there is no one solution to solving homelessness.
The challenges are many. How do you force a homeless person to get treatment? Put them in jail if they don’t? Leave them out on the street?
Where does a person who is homeless, and who gets treatment, live if they don’t have a job or can’t work and can’t make money if the only housing is too expensive to even try to move in to a place.
And how do you pay for the enormous cost of providing treatment for people who need it? Health insurance is costly and local and federal governments can’t afford it, with many taxpayers saying government already takes and spends too much of their money.
But to really solve the homeless problem, it’s going to take money and lots of it.
The only real way to solve homelessness is doing what the San Diego Rescue Mission does and what Billy Graham used to say. Change one person at a time and have the faith to do it.
(Photo San Diego Rescue Mission)
San Diego Rescue Mission's South County Lighthouse. This facility is a permanent, 162-bed shelter in National City, serving men, women and families experiencing homelessness from all over the county.