What Vista Can Learn from Berkeley’s Success in Addressing Homelessness
Let’s all agree to stop using the word “transients” to refer to homeless people. This issue occurred on April 23 at a City of Vista council meeting when a former homeless person challenged Mayor John Franklin. The mayor had proposed a policy statement on homelessness borrowing language from the neighboring City of Escondido, which included the statement:
“A criminal transient is a specific type of unsheltered person who creates an unreasonable burden on emergency services, the criminal justice system, and affects the safety of our entire community.”
Having called into the meeting, the formerly homeless San Diegan called the mayor’s language disparaging. The speaker explained that using the term “transient” is offensive, likening its impact to using racial slurs or outdated terms to refer to black people, as highlighted in a Huffington Post blog. “The language in this memo is offensive,” the speaker stated.
The word is also inaccurate. Let me explain.
The word “transient” is an adjective used to describe something that lasts only a short time or exists briefly. Historically, it was used to describe transient workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These workers moved from job to job and stayed in temporary housing, such as single-room occupancies (SROs) or rooms rented by the night.
Transient workers were not necessarily homeless; their temporary housing supported their employment, not the other way around. They often had little investment in the communities they worked in because they didn’t intend to remain as permanent residents. This is not usually the case for people experiencing homelessness in a community, who often seek stability and permanence but lack the means.
Study Reveals 75% of Homeless People Remain in Their Home County
The California statewide study released in 2023 by the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative reports that 75% of homeless people now live in the same county where they were last housed. This dispels the assumption that homeless community members in Vista are transient.
Let’s examine the other term used by Mayor Franklin: “criminal.”
If the proposed policy statement is adopted, anyone who becomes unsheltered in Vista would be deemed a criminal from their first night of homelessness simply for seeking a basic human need—sleep. This effectively criminalizes homelessness itself. Similarly, cities that enact encampment-banning laws and ordinances will likely see a rise in criminal offenses, as individuals forced to sleep in unauthorized locations face legal repercussions for meeting their fundamental needs.
Berkeley Sees Reduction in Homelessness After Implementing Proven Solutions
Although Vista’s neighbor, Escondido, recently passed an encampment ban, and another neighboring city, San Marcos, is likely to after their council’s second reading of the proposal, there is still time for Vista to rethink the idea of further criminalizing homelessness. The city could look at the resolution that Councilmember Lunaparra of Berkeley authored and presented last month, with Councilmember Taplin co-sponsoring it.
The resolution “reaffirms Berkeley’s refusal to criminalize unhoused and unsheltered residents for sleeping in public without first offering shelter and commitment to creating, repurposing, and offering shelter options.”
During the council meeting, it was reported that by tripling its capacity of non-congregate shelter beds, the City of Berkeley increased its bed acceptance rate to 79%. Since 2021, homelessness in Berkeley has decreased by 20%, with a 45% reduction in unsheltered homelessness. While the council felt they needed more information about the legal ramifications and did not vote to pass the proposed resolution, they also did not see any reason to begin enforcement outside of how they had been proceeding under the 2018 Martin vs. City of Boise ruling.
The City of Berkeley is seeing a significant decrease in homelessness by investing in solutions that work, like permanent supportive housing. They have had this success without creating encampment bans like the cities of Escondido and San Marcos have pursued. As more California cities have these conversations about criminalization, I urge them to listen to the voices of those with lived experience of homelessness when they talk about what works, what doesn’t, and what hurts.
Stop Dehumanizing Homeless People
The Mayor and City council members in Vista have heard how homeless people do not wish to be called “transient” because they aren’t. We have also seen how providing proven solutions to homelessness is successfully reducing the number of households living both sheltered and unsheltered in Berkeley.
What will the City of Vista do with this information? Will the city proceed with referring to homeless residents as “criminal transients” in proposed policy statements? Will they also adopt an encampment ban, or will they cease using dehumanizing language and increase the supply of permanent housing instead?
Reach out to your local representatives and let them know you want proven solutions instead of criminalization and degradation. Speak at city and county meetings, send an email, and contact your representatives.
Vista, the ball is in your court.
