AMU Emergency Management Public Safety

Homelessness Becoming a Big Problem in Some Big Cities

U.S. regions are making emergency declarations due to homelessness

With more and more regions of the U.S. grappling with issues related to homelessness, the practice of making emergency declarations to deal with the issues is becoming more commonplace.

The growing list of U.S. cities and regions that have declared a state of emergency due to homelessness gained another member last week – San Francisco.

San Francisco

San Francisco is the latest major city to make an emergency declaration after struggling to deal with increasing homelessness in recent months. Last week, San Francisco Supervisor David Campos called for city officials to [link url=”http://abc7news.com/news/sf-supervisor-declares-state-of-emergency-on-homelessness/1236534/” title=”declare a state of emergency on homelessness“].

Campos said he is hoping that the declaration will help speed up the opening of additional shelters in the city, and that he is acting in response to increasing complaints about the growing size of local homeless encampments.

With a declaration, San Francisco will be following in the footsteps of other cities and states:

Seattle, WA

In November 2015, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray [link url=”http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/mayor-county-exec-declare-state-of-emergency-over-homelessness/” title=”declared a state of emergency over homelessness“]. Months later, the city stepped up efforts even more, [link url=”http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/stop-opening-tent-cities-homelessness-expert-tells-seattle-leaders/” title=”hiring a well-known homeless expert“] to help the city deal with the homelessness crisis.

Los Angeles

In September 2015, [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/22/us/los-angeles-homelessness/” title=”Los Angeles declared a state of emergency on homelessness“] and requested $100 million to help address the crisis. At the time of the declaration, city officials said that homelessness had grown 12 percent since 2013 and that the city had at least 25,000 homeless residents.

Hawaii

The acting Governor of Hawaii, Shan Tsutsui, [link url=”https://www.staradvertiser.com/hawaii-news/emergency-declaration-is-extended/” title=”extended the state’s emergency proclamation to address homelessness“] earlier this week. Hawaii first issued the emergency proclamation on October 16, 2015 and then extended the emergency on both October 26 and December 24.

Hawaii has [link url=”http://governor.hawaii.gov/newsroom/governors-office-news-release-governor-ige-signs-emergency-proclamation-to-address-homelessness-statewide/” title=”the highest per capita rate of homelessness in U.S.“], with approximately 465 homeless per 100,000 people.

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