The houselessness tipping point: Which side will we choose?
Editor's note: The above video is from 2022.
Councilman Chris Coleman recently stated that Des Moines has reached the tipping point regarding the situation of houseless persons. If we have reached the tipping point, we have to decide on which side are we going to tip over into. As a society, we have indeed reached a tipping point regarding the direction we want to go as a nation. We have to decide what kind of nation and people we want to be. Do we want to be a nation that cares about humanity, or one that values profit and anything that could affect that more?
The recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have clearly demonstrated that their motto is profit for the powerful over everything, people and planet be damned. The Supreme Court has legalized punishment for houselessness even if there are no spaces in shelters, but just because something is legal doesn't make it right, just, or fair. And just because the Supreme Court ruled this way does not mean that the city had to immediately consider an ordinance rather than coming up with a comprehensive plan to address the issue.
Time and time again, City Council members have demonstrated that when they want to support an initiative, they can find the money. They found money for the Birdland Park renovation ($54 million). The city continues to find money to increase the policing budget. And the city even found money to create a nonprofit, Invest DSM, to improve properties and property values in certain neighborhoods ($25 million over 10 years). But you can't invest in neighborhoods and buildings and not also invest in the people. It's the people who are the lifeblood of our communities that make our investments worth it.
If this is truly a tipping point, we cannot fine and arrest our way out of this problem. Coleman stated that the city needs a strategy, but fines and punishment are not a strategy; it is merely kicking the can down the road for another generation to address. It’s time to stop kicking the can down the road and pick it up. Sure, we didn't put the can there, but it is now our responsibility. Our ability to respond to the challenges within our community demonstrates what is truly important to us. The test of all humans is in their immediate actions, not their ultimate sentiments. If we have the ability to require houseless persons to do community service, then we also have the ability to find community work for them to engage in so they can obtain housing.
There is a plethora of examples of cities larger than Des Moines that have drastically reduced houselessness. Houston, Texas, the fourth most populous city in the US, has seen a 63% reduction in its houseless population (and eliminated veteran houselessness) by revamping its system and adopting the Housing First principles. In Bakersfield, California, the houseless population was reduced to less than 0.1% by creating a database of houseless persons and using the data to address the specific needs of those persons with partner agencies. There are many more examples of cities using creativity and community to address this challenge. It appears that Des Moines has a poverty of imagination regarding houselessness.
The human brain is a problem-solving machine. The only problems humans don't solve are the ones they don't want to solve because the solutions are inconvenient. If this is our tipping point, we must decide: humanism or capitalism? Lock up or a hand up? Contempt or compassion? Property values or valuing people? How do we want the city to utilize its federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding and other federal dollars that were created to address housing issues?
The council did not have enough votes to waive the second and third readings of the ordinance. Now isn’t a time to celebrate but a time to act. If you disapprove of the ordinance, contact your city council members. As someone who's worked in government, I know that it is the meetings before and after the official public meetings that matter most. Let them know that we should not be criminalizing people because they don’t have houses; rather, we should be assisting them in obtaining access to housing. I hope that the scale in Des Moines tips in the favor of humanity, but it has a possibility of doing that only by letting your voices be heard.
Joshua V. Barr was director of civil and human rights for the city of Des Moines from 2015 to 2021. He now runs his own consultancy agency, Raising The Barr LLC, and speaks around the country on human rights issues.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: If Des Moines homeless policy is at a tipping point, choose people
