Correspondence - #14 - Laserfiche WebLink

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than what it is: a healthcare issue. The policy also aims to divide our community. During general public comments at the August 1 city council meeting, many of your constituents pointed out that your use of fear mongering stereotypes about unhoused neighbors and people with substance use issues is a political ploy to divide housed and unhoused constituents —all of whom would benefit from investments in affordable housing and community -based services. As one commenter put it, "Instead [you are trying] to pit us against one another —especially against the most vulnerable —people who do not have a home [and] who have to sleep on a bench at night." We demand humane and effective policies —not fear mongering and jail. We demand a Santa Ana in which the basic needs of all are met and the dignity of every resident, no matter who they are, where they sleep, or where they live, is respected, and protected by elected and public officials. Arresting, processing and jailing people will not magically create enough affordable housing and services to meet the need. In fact, this practice actually prevents many from qualifying for housing and sentences them to remain living on the streets. Affordable housing and services should be available on a voluntary basis and on demand. Decades of research have demonstrated what works: the Housing First model, wherein safe, permanent affordable housing and voluntary wrap -around services are provided as an immediate response to people's needs. Jail is not a form of healthcare. Housing is a form of healthcare, and research has shown that mental and behavioral health services are much more effective when people are removed from the stressors of the streets. We also demand that a substantial portion of resources be reallocated from the police department, which currently receives 35% of the city's general fund. Policing does very little to prevent crime and does not address the biggest public safety issues Santa Ana residents face: poverty, low wages, a lack of economic opportunities, astronomically high housing costs, and a scarcity of community support services. In fact, criminalization and policing further traumatizes people and plunges them deeper into poverty. To address these issues, which are also the root causes of houselessness, we need investment in our communities, not the police department. Finally, the otherizing language some of you used during the August 1 meeting must stop. As elected representatives it is your duty and responsibility to treat every resident of Santa Ana with the dignity and respect we all deserve. You should hold yourselves to the highest possible standards of decency and use your elected position of power to provide people with authentic care rather than create ways to criminalize residents. Positive, humane, and effective community investments will put Santa Ana on a path to being recognized as a model city in which all residents can participate as equals and to flourish —a community everyone can be proud of As one commenter said, "Our interests are to expand affordable housing and to ultimately make housing a human right so that there can be no [unhoused] people anywhere on the streets of Santa Ana and ultimately throughout the whole country."