Contemporary Social Welfare Policy Report: Homelessness in California

This report provides a comprehensive overview of homelessness in California, examining its historical context, values, and scope. It delves into the complexities of the problem, including its impact on vulnerable populations and the influence of economic and social factors. The report analyzes existing policies like the Emergency Solution Grant Program and explores policy alternatives such as Permanent Supportive Housing. It also addresses human rights concerns related to the criminalization of homelessness and advocates for a shift towards housing-focused solutions. The report highlights the importance of social workers in addressing this critical issue and emphasizes the need for increased funding and collaboration to combat homelessness effectively. The analysis also touches upon the conflict theory and the role of capitalism in contributing to the issue, concluding with a call for comprehensive strategies to improve the lives of individuals experiencing homelessness in California.

Contemporary Social
Welfare Policy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
PROBLEM OVERVIEW ...............................................................................................................3
VALUES & INTEREST..................................................................................................................4
SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM .........................................................................................................4
POLICY DEVELOPMENT.............................................................................................................5
POLICY ALTERNATIVE .............................................................................................................6
POLICY AND HUMAN RIGHTS .................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Social welfare policy is described as acts, laws and regulations that assist to improve the
lives of individuals in the community. This report is based on homelessness in California which
will cover the problem background, values & interest that have affected, scope of the problem
and lastly policies and human rights in the context.
PROBLEM OVERVIEW
Homelessness refers to the situation when individuals live without permanent dwelling
like shelter. The problem emerged in 1870 as a national issue, as many people started emerging
to cities such as California and New York. Later between 1950 and 1970, as the time of post war
prosperity, the bridge between the incomes of rich and poor narrowed (Brown, Batko, Leopold
and Shroyer, 2018).
It has been discovered that California has the highest housing costs of any large state, and
they are increasing rapidly. The common perception of this problem that affects only those with
mental health problem. The public perception has changed over time on homelessness and has
become more compassionate and liberal. The huge change in the attitudes were raised in support
for homeless people. These perceptions have influenced by key initiatives to address the problem
like Bush Administration's 10-year plan. The plan was first came into existence in 2004 in New
York, which is a sate-wide coalition of 150 non-profit housing and social service agencies
having for addition of 16,000 apartments and more accountability by authorities for people they
release into homelessness. The plan need the support of mayor, governor and federal money for
doubling the supply of apartments.

VALUES & INTEREST
It has been determined that, the factors influencing homelessness are complex such as;
family breakdown, addictions, etc. Also, forces such as; low-cost housing, bad economic
situation, and so on all have influence the problem in California. Together all these forces impact
the problem of homelessness through their impulsive connection (Dear and Wolch, 2014).
California people concentrates on the individuals as the cause of his/her own state of
homelessness, blaming other rather than focusing on larger preceding social and economic forces
such as; unemployment, restricted affordable housing, etc. Categorisation has been done by the
society, about people who are homeless as no longer useful, as they do not work and support the
system.
It has been revealed that, the problem of homelessness affects everyone in the
community. This includes, community residents, business owners, service workers and homeless
individuals. Because of changes in economic, & demographic factors fluctuations has affected
the major groups. In which homelessness children have higher rate of homelessness including
vulnerable adults.
SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
In California, based on research and study it has been found that nearly 554,000 number
of people are suffering from his problem in 2017, and this has increased to 134,000 in 2018,
hence, the majority of California's homeless population is acutely homeless. The reason behind
this is that, 59% of the nation's homeless youth lives in California. People with low income are
severely impacted by this (Kushel, 2018).
It has been found that the higher risk of homelessness is acute and chronic illness. The
problem gives rise to many health problems such as mental illness, particularly schizophrenia.

Apart from this, according to federal plan, the problem is expensive in its negative influence on
human life, health & productivity.
The theory used to describe the cause of the problem i.e. homelessness is found to be
conflict theory, claiming that society exist in a state of ongoing dispute due to competition for
limited resources, and thus capitalism is reasoned as the major cause of homelessness.
Social workers are considered to be the dominant people in supportive housing and
community based settings. Therefore, social care providers provide services to this severe
problem.
POLICY DEVELOPMENT
Emergency Solution Grant Program in California, aims at providing funds for various
activities to address the problem of homelessness as authorised under the federal Homeless
Emergency Assistance. Grant funding is offered by ESG program to engage homeless people and
families living on the street (Leibler, León and Gaeta, 2017).
The policy can adopt changes such as; together with advocates across the California, the
Law Centre must develop a campaign to redirect law and policy away from criminalization and
towards housing instead.
The present policy views eligibly, as the program funds can be used for 4 major activities
such as; street outreach, rapid re-housing assistance, emergency shelter and homelessness
prevention. Moreover, this may also be utilised for associated Homeless Management
Information System costs and administrative activities (Levenson, 2018).
Benefits provided by this program are; helping run & provides necessary services in
emergency shelter for homelessness people and families, prevent people and families from
becoming homeless and quickly re-house homeless individuals and families. The benefits

provided by the program are sufficient to meet the needs, because the redesigned ESG program
aims at following: aligns with local system's federal ESG and HEARTH goals, invest in
impactful activities according to key performance goals and outcomes, enhances geographic
distribution of funded activities and develop a streamline delivery mechanism.
POLICY ALTERNATIVE
Permanent Supportive Housing is an approach or program which is designed to provide
the help to homeless people in California. The programs also faces barriers common to
affordable housing. It has been found that there is no single source of funding and providers
often needs to communicate three levels of authorities. Another consequence might be the
fragmented nature of the funding for PSH that is enlarged by the fact that the amount available
for funding is generally deficient to meet the demand & needs. Moreover, the huge cost of
obtaining land for the development of PSH worsen the influence of already restricted affordable
housing resources (Rodriguez and Shinn, 2016).
Social worker's responsibility is to serve other, and is the one of the major values in
social work from which all other values stem. Another key value is social justice, as many social
workers decide to enter the profession as they identify the need to help deprived & vulnerable
people. The values are compatible with social work ethics and values, because in social work,
social change efforts are initially focused on unemployment, poverty, discrimination and other
kinds of social justice. The values of homelessness policy states that by giving people the
resources to assist them out of homelessness, social worker preserve their dignity. They act with
compassion, decency and humanity. Moreover, as a social worker, an individual understands the
inherent value of every human life regardless of background or religious (Frankel, 2017).

Yes, funds will be required for the proposal of criminalisation to housing. The funds will
be come from HOME Investment Partnership Program, which is a form of United States federal
assistance, provided by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to States. This
has been developed to provide finance & affordable housing to low and very low income groups.
Moreover, benefits offered by the HOME program are; strengthening the abilities of state to
apply strategies for obtaining adequate supplies of decent housing.
Groups that will be required to engage to get policy accepted will be the Department of
Justice that will file a brief, supporting the position and stating that criminalizing homelessness
violates the US Constitution. Numerous of individuals, families and youth that are experiencing
homelessness each year will also be the part of the group.
Denver's Road Home program can be against the policy, because its program focuses on
all current outreach programs, expanding some along the way and it pays for the 20 out reach
workers. Also, supporter might argue that criminalisation is essential to enhance economic
activity in cities where homeless people are visible.
POLICY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Since Emergency Solution Grant Program in California, and other policies have adopted
in the country, it has offered limited statutory accommodation rights to unintentionally homeless
people, who are termed to be in priority and able to show a local link. However, some of the
rights are; assisting participants quickly and resolve the barriers to obtain housing, under this
program contractors are also needed to keep a record of clients who are screened, connecting
participants to proper support & services available in the community that promote long term
housing stability (Wilson, 2016).

Change which was described earlier regarding shifting the focus from criminalization to
housing supports human rights, as criminalisation also increases important constitutional
concerns, a range of courts have invalidated such approaches. The strategy also found to be
raising human rights concerns too. The U.N. Human Rights Committee recently identified that
criminalization of homelessness violates country's human rights responsibilities. Apart from this,
guidance is also included by US Inter-agency Council on Homelessness saying evicting
homeless encampments without providing sufficient alternative housing (Stewart, 2017).
CONCLUSION
The overall report concluded that, the one quarter of the nation's homeless population is
in California as it has around 134,000 homeless people. The problem has been left unaddressed
from decades. The problem of homelessness is a situation when people live without shelter and
have lack of steady income. The report described the historical view of the problem with changes
in perspective regarding homelessness over time.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Brown, S., Batko, S., Leopold, J. and Shroyer, A., 2018. Final Report and Recommendations on
Homelessness in Alameda County, California.
Dear, M. J. and Wolch, J. R., 2014. Landscapes of despair: From deinstitutionalization to
homelessness (Vol. 823). Princeton University Press.
Kushel, M., 2018. Hepatitis a outbreak in California—addressing the root cause. New England
Journal of Medicine. 378(3). pp.211-213.
Leibler, J. H., León, C. and Gaeta, J. M., 2017. Prevalence and risk factors for MRSA nasal
colonization among persons experiencing homelessness in Boston, MA. Journal of
medical microbiology. 66(8). pp.1183-1188.
Levenson, J. S., 2018. Hidden challenges: Sex offenders legislated into homelessness. Journal of
Social Work. 18(3). pp.348-363.
Rodriguez, J. M. and Shinn, M., 2016. Intersections of family homelessness, CPS involvement,
and race in Alameda County, California. Child abuse & neglect.57. pp.41-52.
Stewart, A., 2017. A RESOURCE PROGRAM FOR HOMELESS ADULTS AND FAMILIES
IN COMPTON, CALIFORNIA: A GRANT PROPOSAL.
Wilson, R., 2016. Homelessness, Shelter, and Human Rights in California and New York.
Online
Frankel, S., 2017. Guilty of Homelessness: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United
States. [Online]. Available On: <http://urbanlawjournal.com/guilty-of-homelessness-the-
criminalization-of-homelessness-in-the-united-states/>