Homelessness solutions discussed at United Way of Ventura County symposium

President Joe Biden's spending packages will help combat homelessness nationwide, including in Ventura County, Rep. Julia Brownley said at a recent United Way symposium.

The recently passed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which includes $50 billion of housing and homelessness assistance, "is a good first start when we're thinking about housing, income equality, poverty," Brownley, D-Westlake Village, said at Friday's virtual forum on ending homelessness in Ventura County.

The program was hosted by the United Way of Ventura County.

The Trump administration's $2.2 trillion CARES economic stimulus bill also provided housing assistance funding, said Brownley, one of eight speakers at the symposium.

Meanwhile, a $1.5 trillion discretionary spending plan that Biden unveiled Friday contains "a tremendous amount of increased dollars ... targeting high-poverty areas," she said.

If passed, housing programs will get a significant boost, including $30 billion for housing vouchers that officials say will aid up to 200,000 families, Brownley said.  

In addition, Biden's proposed $2 trillion American Jobs Plan contains $213 billion for affordable housing, she said. 

"These are all really good things," Brownley said. "All of these resources, if we can get these passed and signed into law, are going to help Ventura County." 

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Ventura County's homeless population rose for the third straight year in 2020, with 1,743 homeless adults and children counted during a single day by the annual point-in-time tally.

The January 2021 count was canceled because of COVID-19 concerns.

The symposium's keynote speaker, Matthew Desmond, a Princeton University sociologist, said being a NIMBY — "not in my back yard" —  "is a moral failing of communities and there's no state in the country where the moral failing is more acute than California."

NIMBYs are residents who oppose developments planned in their neighborhoods, including affordable ones.

"It has to be tackled," said Desmond, author of the 2016 nonfiction book, "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City."

He said evictions disproportionately harm low-income persons of color.

"Black communities, especially, are really like the hotbeds of eviction," he said.

Eric Harrison, president and CEO of the local United Way, asked Desmond how the nation's faith-based community can play a greater role in solving homelessness.

"There's no reason the faith community now can't lead on issues of housing affordability and evictions," Desmond said. "I don't know why churches and other faith communities ... don't try to take on the predatory lenders in their community."

 Another panelist, Amy Duganne, United Way's local director of homelessness initiatives, said landlords need to be part of the solution to get people off the streets.

"Maybe this is a plea to our landlord community," she said. Renting "just one unit makes a huge difference. That is a household being housed."

Other panelists were Ventura County CEO Mike Powers; State Senator Henry Stern, D-Calabasas; Nancy Grygiel, Amgen senior vice president and chief compliance officer; and Emilio Ramirez, Oxnard's housing director.

The panel was moderated by Henry Dubroff, editor of the Pacific Coast Business Times.

Mike Harris covers the East County cities of Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, as well as transportation countywide. You can contact him at mike.harris@vcstar.com or 805-437-0323.

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