There are an estimated 11.5 million Americans (or nearly 5 percent of the population) living with a serious mental illness. Many families struggle to get care for their loved ones, describing an inhumane system that treats mental illness and the often-concomitant problem of substance use disorder as different than other disabilities.
For years, Kartar Diamond struggled to find care for her son due to a lack of quality residential housing programs in California, expensive monthly rates, and long waiting lists at both public and private long-term psychiatric facilities.
Now 35, he lives in a residential housing program in Orange County for people with severe mental illnesses.
Seeking to serve Oakland’s urban Indigenous population, Native American Health Center is building a community facility with 76 affordable apartments as well as dental clinics.
Housing advocates say the housing will provide much-needed relief to Oaklanders as the city, and wider Bay Area, grapples with rising income inequality and skyrocketing housing prices.
People experiencing homelessness face repeated violence and stress from a lack of safety. They often engage in unhealthy behaviors, such as substance use, to cope.
A comprehensive strategy to reduce exposure to violence for people who are unhoused can reduce violence in the community as a whole, reduce public spending on emergency medical and other services and increase the chances that individuals can transition off the streets.
As climate change increases the intensity of wildfires in California, more people are losing their homes and facing long-term displacement and instability.
Researchers and those who work with disaster victims said there is insufficient government assistance to help the most vulnerable wildfire survivors find housing. There also isn’t enough housing to accommodate California’s swelling population of wildfire refugees.
We are calling on the region’s leaders and residents to support a historic $500 million Bay Area Regional Black Housing Fund.
Black communities face multiple systemic barriers that lead to massive displacement in the Bay Area. Black people have been disadvantaged in the state’s housing market for decades because of discrimination, including redlining, unequal access to wealth and good jobs, and other systemic problems.
Domestic violence, the leading cause of homelessness among women and children, is increasing during the pandemic, but a way for survivors to get “housing first” is a bright light.
While people from all socioeconomic backgrounds experience domestic violence, low-income survivors and immigrant women are especially at risk of becoming homeless due to lack of resources.
A growing number of psychiatry residents at UCLA are training to help thousands of people in Los Angeles who are homeless and suffer from mental illness. Students concerned about social justice have spurred the change.
San Diego is stuck in a tight spot when it comes to parking. As the city gears up to change its parking requirements for new construction, debate has centered on whether to house people or to house cars.
Residents of City Heights in San Diego often deal with mold and vermin infestations in rental housing, but a bureaucratic rats’ nest prevents them from getting any action. The city does not enforce parts of the state code dealing with these issues, and the county enforces codes only in areas not served by cities. The could step in but is taking a go-slow approach. The result: a runaround, and no help for tenants.