Housing not Handcuffs for the Unhoused
The Californer/10304738

FREMONT, Calif. - Californer -- Abode Services, Bay Area Community Services, and Fremont for Everyone
Urge Fremont City Council to Reject Plan to Ban Encampments and
Criminalize the Un-sheltered.

Fremont for Everyone, to condemn the city's policy change. The organizations obviously agree that having people live outside, unsheltered from the elements, is far from ideal; indeed, they work diligently to solve that problem.

However, empowering police to fine or even arrest people just for experiencing homelessness is foolhardy and cruel, and sweeping encampments without offering folks another place to go is a policy  destined to fail. It is wholly ineffective and a terrible use of our civic resources, which will not benefit homes and businesses.

In addition, the city has failed to attempt any collaboration with experts and their own providers of outreach, shelter, and housing services in the community before proposing the ban. Abode, BACS, and Fremont for Everyone are here to help solve the problem, collaborate, and support Fremont's housed and unhoused communities with dignity.

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"Garbage and debris get swept; in a truly civilized society, human beings are not," said Vivian Wan, CEO of Abode Services. "In a just society that reflects the best values of Fremont and the Bay Area, human beings are treated with compassion and we partner to solve community challenges. We don't blame and further traumatize those most impacted by the housing affordability crisis.

From BACS' erecting the Fremont Navigation Center and expanding services at the Fremont Wellness and Housing Center, as well as Abode expanding more housing and services at new Fremont affordable housing sites such as Doug Ford Senior
Apartments and City Center Apartments. But rather than celebrating its improvement by building on those sustainable, ongoing solutions.

"Since data shows we can solve homelessness effectively without such an inhumane measure, we are deeply concerned that the city is choosing to move backwards instead of forward," said Jamie Almanza, CEO of Bay Area Community Services. "This proposal solves nothing - it seeks to make the problem invisible instead of better. We are sacrificing true progress of the evidence-based models such as street

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outreach, Keep People Housed, targeted interim housing, permanent housing, and permanent supportive housing for the appearance of progress at a higher cost."

Resources would be better spent deploying real solutions and partnering with
providers to truly end homelessness. Our stance on the issue of sweeping encampments is clear:

• Homelessness is not a crime; it is a crisis - one that is a result of systemic failures that have
• In the Bay Area, some would have to earn as much as $78 per hour to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment. (For low-wage workers, that would mean working up to five full-time minimum-wage jobs.)

BACS, ABODE, and Fremont for Everyone
https://fremontforeveryone.com