From Cash Checks to Shelter Mandates, The South Bay Is Betting Big on Homelessness Solutions

The Bay Area does not have enough shelter beds for everyone who needs one, or enough housing people can afford.

"We found in our studies that the vast majority of people would accept a shelter bed, but there just isn’t one," BHHI Director Margot Kushel MD tells Guy Marzorati.

"When I talk to people who refuse shelter, it’s people who are being asked to go into rooms of 400 people. There might be someone they’re afraid of there...There are often only top bunks, and much of our homeless population is aging and can’t get up there.

"But the truth is, for every rare person who says no, there is a long line of people waiting to get in."

One reason people are waiting so long? There is nowhere for them to go after they leave shelters. "Both in California and in the United States at large... one in three people... in a given year, go from shelter to housing," says Luis Melecio-Zambrano. A lot of those people who aren’t going into housing end up either back on the streets or in another shelter situation."

"So that goal of transitioning someone from the street to a shelter to housing is not as clean a transition as we might expect or hope, really, says Luis."

Listen to the full conversation.