Homelessness Demands Enlightened Plans not Poltical Correctness

Homelessness is defining the public agenda in Los Angeles and Portland.  In September, Mayor Eric Garcetti declared that homelessness had reached a “state of emergency” and Mayor Charlie Hales stated that a “homeless crisis” had beset Portland.  Since then the cities have allocated a combined $130 million to the issue.  Ted Wheeler, the frontrunner in the Portland mayor’s race after Hales dropped out, has made homelessness a priority in his campaign.

This summer I assessed the homeless use of public parks in Portland. In the course of my research, I walked five miles a day on average and regularly interacted with the homeless.  It was sobering.  Just as there are few atheists in foxholes, encountering the homeless—humans confined to a prison without walls on the edge of the abyss—produces either good existentialists or classical Hobbesian liberals, who see humans as fallen creatures destined for ruin without the oversight of a civic sovereign. Politically correct academics, I learned, have a different take.  Homelessness is not an existential crisis that demands interdiction; rather speaking “truth to power” and raising class-consciousness is the solution to a marginalized population deprived of inclusion.

Last week I attended the Society of American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) Conference in Los Angeles.  I was eager to see how historians are mining the past to address homelessness, as SACRPH’s stated mission is “bridging the gap between the scholarly study of cities and the practice of urban planning.”  American city planning has a rich history of housing the less fortunate. A century ago, John Nolen declared the novice profession’s mission was “housing the industrial classes, which is agreed to be one of the pressing problems of our civilization.” Nolen’s precedent, however, was ignored, as social theory not historical analysis informed the conference's opening plenary’s discussion of the homeless.   

Catherine Gudis, a cultural historian, addressed the issue in a session entitled, “Social Justice Through a Historical Lens.”  She introduced the subject by trumpeting her participation in a parade that celebrated “the accomplishments of Skid Row people and their visionary initiatives.” A worthy endeavor, but after the event Gudis assuredly returned to suburban Riverside where she is employed.  She never shared her encounters with the homeless, a population plagued by mental illness, drug addiction, and physical ailments.  Nor did she mention the need for enlightened plans to coordinate policing and social services.  Instead, she offered academic adages that stressed process over plans, offering street performance and art as mediums to procure a more inclusive public sphere and to inspire political action. Political action, of course, is not enough.  Moreover, to romanticize homelessness as a class struggle is to invite anarchy.  

This fall elected leaders in Vancouver, Washington (part of Metropolitan Portland) lifted the ban on camping in public spaces.  Within two weeks, 150 people occupied the edge of a residential neighborhood near the downtown.  The encampment had no leadership, policies, or infrastructure—no planning—and chaos ensued. Sleeping bags, shopping carts, mattresses, coolers, garbage, luggage and bike frames collected on street corners.  Amy Reynolds, an administrator with the nonprofit that runs Share House, the shelter around which the camp formed, was besieged by calls from alarmed residents complaining that, "Somebody is defecating in my yard. People are undressing outside my house. People are having domestic disputes, getting in screaming matches and physical fights.”http://www.oregonlive.com/homeless/2015/11/vancouver_tries_legal_camping.html  A reality check ensured, and city officials closed the camp.  The lesson learned is that homelessness demands a comprehensive solution, which only well-designed plans can secure.  

Whether attempting to mitigate homelessness, climate change, or housing affordability, livability is the key to good planning.  The Obama Administration restructured the Department of Housing and Urban Development on the Six Principles of Livability, which are drawn from the New Urbanist template for establishing pedestrian oriented neighborhoods with access to transit and a mix of uses. Livability is also keys to the Housing First initiative, which advocates moving the chronically homeless into apartments without preconditions.  Making housing the first the step to stability and sobriety is a radical reversal of standard practice.  In 2006 Lloyd Pendleton, chair of Utah's Task Force on Homelessness, championed the approach, and since then three quarters of the state’s homeless have left the streets.

The Portland Business Alliance is sponsoring Pendleton, a former executive manager of for Mormon Church’s Welfare Department, to speak to the “homeless crisis.” The city, the organization contends, “needs solutions now.”  Academics tend to deride the New Urbanism (SACRPH attendees greeted the term with catcalls) and the Mormon Church, but these organizations are skilled in implementing path-breaking plans that can solve a national crisis.  As history shown, this is the prerequisite to solving problems that demand political acuity not political correctness.