Law enforcement leaders believe homelessness in California can be ended in a year | Opinion

It is time for new thinking on our homeless epidemic. Every Californian has long witnessed the humanitarian crisis of our present course. But in recent weeks, the situation has hit a tipping point.

The departure of Nordstrom, Whole Foods and other retailers from San Francisco may not be the most critical data point on this issue, but we believe these events demonstrate that no one, regardless of socioeconomic status, is immune from the quality of life deterioration that our communities are experiencing due to homelessness.

Our once-great cities are being hollowed out. This requires us to move beyond the tired blame game of politics and the same approaches to the problem that have proven to be abject failures.

We can do better, and we can learn from what other states could teach us if we are willing to listen.

Opinion

Several large Democratic states have low homelessness rates, such as New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan and Illinois.

We believe there is a reason for this: All these states have much stronger hard drug laws than California.

In our opinion, fentanyl, heroin and other hard drug addictions — and the associated mental health crises that these drugs sometimes entail — are the root cause of California’s homeless crisis. Until we address addiction and mental health, homelessness in our state will only continue to grow. California’s hard drug laws are out of step with progressive states that have lower rates of homelessness.

In California, there is essentially no consequence for hard drug possession. Therefore, law enforcement rarely arrests for the crime. In New Jersey, hard drug possession can lead to a three-to-five-year sentence and substantial fines. According to USA Facts, a nonpartisan nonprofit funded by billionaire Steve Ballmer, the homeless population per 10,000 people in New Jersey is 9.45 compared to 43.95 in California. The USA Facts study is based on 2022 Department of Housing and Urban Development data, and it showed that New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan and Illinois all had much lower homeless rates than in California.

In Maryland, multiple cases of hard drug possession can result in an 18-24 month sentence and substantial fines, while Maryland has only 8.68 homeless people per 10,000 residents.

In Michigan, hard drug possession can result in a four-year sentence and substantial fines, and Michigan’s homeless rate is 8.18 per 10,000 residents.

And in Illinois, possession of fentanyl can result in a three-to-seven-year sentence and substantial fines. They also have one of the lowest homeless rates in the country — a rate of 7.32 homeless people per 10,000 residents.

We think California can end our homeless crisis in one year with a new approach that takes a modest step in the direction of these other progressive states.

First, after two hard drug convictions, prosecutors would have the discretion to charge the third hard drug possession as a new class of crime called a “treatment-mandated felony.” The judge would have the final say on whether the defendant should be charged in this manner. The factors that the prosecutor and judge would consider in the decision would include the defendant’s prior history, the number of drugs in the defendant’s possession, the defendant’s amenability to drug treatment and other offenses, such as illegal weapons possession.

If the defendant is charged with this new, “treatment mandated felony,” an addiction specialist would be assigned to provide a complete suite of services to the defendant including shelter, drug and mental health treatment (outpatient whenever possible), and job training.

Drug treatment in the criminal justice system works.

If the defendant successfully completes drug and mental health treatment, they would receive full expungement of the drug charge. If the defendant refuses drug treatment, the individual could receive up to 18 months of time served in county jail. The defendant can alter this sentence at any time by choosing the treatment path instead. If the defendant is re-arrested for hard drug possession, they would be eligible for a complete do-over of the treatment path for as many times as it takes until they get better.

The goal of this proposal is to treat drug addiction and mental health as the humanitarian crises that they are — to get people the help they need — not to punish them, and to simultaneously reclaim the safety of our communities. But under the current legal framework, there is no accountability in the law when people refuse to get help.

New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan and Illinois understand this. That’s why they created stronger hard drug laws — and it has worked. The result has been exponentially lower homelessness in these states than in California. And despite these stronger drug laws, three out of four of these states have lower incarceration rates than California.

This proposal would modestly move California in the direction of progressive states that have shown us the way on homelessness. With this new approach, drug addiction and mental health would be treated, and we would rapidly get people off the streets, into shelter and into the care they need.

We can end our homeless crisis in one year. Let’s start today.

Jim Cooper is the Sheriff of Sacramento County and Jeff Reisig is the District Attorney of Yolo County.