April 6, 2024
Those of you who know me know that a major area of concern for my ministry is the homeless. I am a resident of California. I rarely speak out on political matters, but this strikes at the heart of what I preach about caring for the marginalized in society.
This piece is to make people aware of the barbarity of the new law which was first marketed as a "ballot initiative" in March 2024 to gauge public sentiment for getting the homeless off the streets. It barely passed, and it took several days for the ballot count on the initiative to be finalized. The legislature almost immediately passed a bill (SB43) sitting on the shelf waiting for the public mood to approve.
Homelessness is a major problem in CA. This is contributed to by the generally warm climate, and the inability of social service programs to keep up with the need. Homeless people in some areas of CA set up tents on public streets for shelter. Some beg for money. Most don't have the ability to shower daily. Many have unkempt or dirty clothing. The residents don't like it.
There's a misconception that the homeless are all crazy or addicts/alcoholics. This is not true. Most are people being crushed by hard times. I work & walk among them in my ministry. There are some addicts, & some mentally ill, but the percentage is small. Many just lack support. The homeless community is, by & large, people just trying to get by in a society that sees them as disposable at best, and "human trash" at worst. They care for each other & look out for each other. I have on many occasions seen a homeless person take a meal that I have bought for them, and share it with others too ashamed or afraid to beg. For every tale of a crazy person or violent addict, there are a thousand instances of care and kindness being shown between members of the homeless community.
The reason that the initiative was such a close call was that many people took the time to become informed about the law to be enacted. It is not a "homeless" measure in any usual sense. There is no money for more shelters or food/toiletries distribution. There is no money being made available for additional health clinics, more protection from crime, or even the ability to wash their clothes in public laundromats. There is not a practical thing in the law to help an actual homeless person.
What the law does do is loosen the restrictions on the government's ability, at the county and local level, to forcibly commit someone under conservatorship laws regarding competence. Up until this time, the law was very clear. The only time a person could be committed was voluntarily, with an exception if the family has sued to rule the person incompetent, or if the person is an imminent danger to themselves or others. Except for those circumstances a homeless person was free to refuse services and to carry on as they wish.
The new law now expands that definition to include a person who is "unable to properly care for themselves" or is not capable of participating in their own health care. This is a subjective slippery slope of dangerous proportions. This definition includes people who use drugs or alcohol in an "unhealthy manner" with no objective definition, people unwilling to submit to mental health care or take their meds, and even can be interpreted as just being in the condition of "homeless". It is very subjective. Anything subjective in government hands is prone to abuse on a massive scale.
Also, because of the subjectivity of the "diagnosis," it provides the precedent of involuntary commitment for any other number of things that can be deemed mental disorders. As well as defining new "mental disorders", as the need arises. This is some Orwellian sh!t.
Gov. Newsom is attempting to address the situation of homelessness by diagnosing it as a disease & locking people up. This is reaching directly back to the abusive institutions that were banned during the Reagan years in the 1980s following the systemic abuses rampant back then. This was, believe it or not, a story broken by Geraldo Rivera, when he was a serious investigative reporter, before he made a joke of himself. Granted, emptying the facilities onto the streets did not help the problem, but neither does re-instating an abusive system where people's rights are trampled for "aesthetics" while not dealing with the homeless problem in any meaningful way.
The current law is being fought by several counties, among them San Diego and Santa Clara, who have their own plans for dealing with the homeless. They consider the new law over-reaching and lacking compassion. With the lack of any objective criteria for deeming someone incompetent under this law, it is felt that there will be little leeway for fighting a judgment of incompetence, especially by the person deemed "unable to care for themselves". This is not a law that will be challenged by a public defender.
The bill was supported by the National Alliance on Mental Illness California and mayors of the biggest California cities, who said the existing conservatorship laws have made it challenging to provide mental health treatment to those most in need. As a bumper sticker, it sounds good. When you look at it closely, it is another way to make bank off of public distaste for a serious societal problem.
The medical establishment that supported the initiative and the bill is fighting to delay implementation, not because it is a draconian law, but because they do not have the bed space to handle the expected demand - which sheds light on the numbers they expect in forced commitments. They want time to expand their facilities so they can collect the payouts and subsidies, which will be enormous.
The mayors of most of the major cities in California are chomping at the bit for action. They are not even coy about their reasoning being to get rid of the public nuisance of homelessness. They want desperately to remove "the blight".
Opponents of the bill, including disability rights advocates, worried the new law will result in more people being locked up and deprived of their fundamental rights. Coercing a person into treatment could also be counterproductive, as generally, if the patient is not cooperative in their treatment, it is a waste of time and resources.
The law takes effect in 2024, but counties can postpone implementation until 2026. Last year, Newsom signed a law that created a new court process where family members and others could ask a judge to come up with a treatment plan for certain people with specific diagnoses, including schizophrenia. That law would let the judge force people into treatment for up to a year. The court program, started this month in seven counties, was also marketed by the political establishment as addressing the state's homelessness crisis.
As a precedent, it is harmful because of the subjectivity involved in deeming a person "unable to care for themselves". This is nothing more than a way to sweep a societal problem once again under the rug. All in the name of not seeing a homeless person while heading into Starbucks for your morning coffee.
If this makes you angry for any reason at all, that is good. It shows that you understand. There are many ways to deal with the problem of homelessness besides removing it from view. It would be nice if this wasn't just another political game of hot-potato designed to keep as many people as possible angry about a problem in a marginalized segment. It serves the purpose of government to focus our anger on the homeless, who are the victims here. They are the victims of the government's exacerbation of their problem at every turn to their plight.
I don't usually ask for action on your part, but this time I am. If this does bother you, please send an email or a text (or a phone call, if anyone still does that) to each of your government representatives - local, state, and federal. You can do an email blast to all of them at once, which would actually be pretty impressive. Tell them that this is not any sort of solution to the problem - it is introducing a new problem into the existing mess. It fixes nothing and will be abused as surely as the state budget deficit grows. I am making an issue of it Sunday morning among my people. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is not even a political issue. This is a human issue.
In Peace, Faith and Love
Ecc. RL Brandner, New Ecclesiastes Ministries