The Record, Stockton, Calif., Michael Fitzgerald column

April 09</chron>--Mayor Anthony Silva recently convoked a meeting to address Stockton's growing homeless problem. The experts showed up anyway.

I'm not being snide. Silva posted the meeting only on Facebook. He invited no experts. But whatever. I don't want to dwell on the way Silva does things.

The mayor showed leadership in at least acknowledging Stockton's homelessness issue requires action. Better Silva's approach than nothing.

The last count of homeless I could find numbered the homeless countywide at 760 "sheltered," 518 in transitional housing and 263 unsheltered, aka on the streets.

An estimated 75 to 80 percent of them cluster in Stockton. That "unsheltered" number is probably low. The homeless are notoriously uncountable.

And for some bureaucratic reason, the tally excludes recipients of General Assistance (GA), though some of them are homeless, too. The real count is much higher.

On a personal note, I recently discovered that a homeless person is using a shed in my back yard for a day shelter. And stealing stuff such as my lawn mower. Some people relax in their backyards. I go out armed with a flashlight and a club.

Little things like this get you engaged in a civic issue.

Addressing homelessness is basic government health and safety, a matter of human compassion and civic pride.

Yet it's not on the agenda. The main reason is not bankruptcy, either. Yes, Stockton is bankrupt. Understaffed police give low priority to aggressive panhandling calls. They don't enforce the shopping cart ordinance.

But homeless programs are largely funded through the county of San Joaquin. County homeless programs may be underfunded, but the county is not insolvent.

Like most government, it puts families first, though. "The biggest challenge is our GA population of single adults," said Joe Celli, the county's human services director.

The county pays $3.8 million a year to give up to 1,500 single adults a safety net. But the net has holes. Affordable housing is one. Stockton tore down half its old hotels.

Moreover, "It's something that I think is a challenge, when you have to work almost on an individual basis ensuring that they remain in a stable living situation," Celli said.

Translation: Many guys are so high-maintenance they require constant support not to get kicked out of their homes. The county provides some.

But there's still a constant churn of evictions.

In addition to a room, "You need teams of mental health, substance abuse and treatment, folks who can help navigate the Social Security system for SSI or disability insurance, which take effort to navigate," said Bill Mendelson, executive director of Central Valley Housing, which administers programs that provide supportive housing.

"Neither the city nor the county and probably not the community agencies have the resources to have one building or more where they can house people and provide necessary support services," Mendelson said.

Ad hoc though it was, the mayor's task force addressed these problems. It issued a substantial white paper outlining a sort of Marshall Plan for the homeless.

Oversimplified, it is: Bring everyone together, agree on a plan, find the money.

"Interesting that many studies show that cities that just take the time to deal with homelessness housing issues save money in the long run from lost business opportunities," Silva said in a text message.

As Measure A tax money kicks in, and, "When we get more personnel, we'll have better planning in place to deal with aggressive panhandlers and the shopping cart issue."

What's needed now is leadership. It's an election year. People running for city or county office should have proposals to address this problem. Demand it from them.

If the mayor can steward his task force forward to remedies, he can notch his first major policy achievement. This will mean working with government, not trying to work around it.

Homelessness in Stockton is analogous to crime: a problem plaguing the city for 50 years because solutions have not been sufficiently well thought out, collaborative and funded.

The solution is about more than getting street people out of your face.

"As a taxpayer and a citizen, I want a place that looks decent, that feels relatively safe, all those things," said Mendelson. "But addressing quality of life is not addressing homelessness. Day laborers or drunks or whoever that are urinating on the sidewalks and passing out, that should be cleaned up. But that's not going to solve the homeless problem."

Contact columnist Michael Fitzgerald at (209) 546-8270 or [email protected]. Follow him at www.recordnet.com/fitzgeraldblog and on Twitter @Stocktonopolis.

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