As reported here, Long Beach’s “Continuum of Care” agency (CoC) recently received a $8.17 million grant through the federal Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD). According to the City’s Homeless Services website, the Long Beach CoC is but one of four such planning agencies in Los Angeles County, each funded through HUD.

Despite over a decade of federal funding, homelessness in Long Beach continues to be a significant challenge. According to the latest Biennial Homeless Count Summary Report, there were 4,387 homeless persons in Long Beach in 2013. This represented an increase from the 2011 total (4,290) which was likewise an increase from the 2009 total (3,909) which was, in turn, an increase from the 2007 total (3,829).

Thus, despite that, as of 2013, the official number of homeless persons in Long Beach had increased by more than 14% over the previous eight years, HUD has now seen fit to provide the Long Beach CoC with $8.17 million additional federal taxpayer dollars…a significant increase in federal funding and its largest such grant to date.

To be clear, I believe homelessness can be a horrible circumstance for any person. That said, there are many causes of homelessness and it seems reasonable to question whether federal involvement in homeless programs within the States is effective or even legitimate.

Congress created HUD in 1965 as a cabinet-level position under then President Lyndon Johnson as but one part of his many “Great Society” policy initiatives. HUD’s stated mission is “to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.” According to HUD’s own historical timeline, the Department began addressing the challenge of homelessness in 1987. The current HUD budget “…includes $2.5 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants…”

Since HUD chose to insert itself into the nation’s challenges with homelessness, it has funneled billions and billions of taxpayer dollars to states and localities to fund programs like CoC. Despite all of the transfer of revenues from States-to the Fed-then back to the States and Localities again, according to a report by the “National Alliance to End Homelessness”, as of the last biennial national statistics available, there were at least 610,000 homeless persons in the country with over 92,000 of those considered “chronically homeless.”

The NAEH report indicates that national homelessness is on the decline but over the nine years covered in the report the decrease (from 763k to 610k) has been at best, negligible and, at worst, all but laughable – again, in the context of the billions and billions of dollars funneled through the federal government specifically for this purpose (pg. 15 of the report.)

I suggest that federal government involvement, generally, and these HUD grants specifically, may not be the best way to assist homeless persons in Long Beach.

This is what I would propose as an alternative:

According to IRS records, in 2013, the federal government collected about $334 billion in tax revenues from California. I propose that California send just 1% less ($3.34 billion) to the federal government during all future tax years and, instead, allocate those funds, directly, to address homelessness within the state. California can allocate those funds as it sees fit. It can divide them equally among the counties ($57.6 million each) or, as I would prefer, per county based upon estimated homeless population. The counties and cities could then, in turn, allocate their funds as they see fit.

In this way Long Beach would surely receive far more than it receives by the current inefficient money-laundering method and the Federal government would no longer be involved in homeless issues within California.

This is part of the beauty of Dual Federalism in a Constitutional Republic. The federal government has nothing to do with issues that are not specifically enumerated for it in the constitution, taxpayers in the States keep more of their own money -rather than seeing it laundered through, and skimmed by, Washington DC- and the people in the States and localities maintain more control over how their funds are spent.

Perhaps even more importantly, California’s tax revenues aren’t spent to help address the homeless challenges in other States. Where federal tax revenues are concerned, California is typically considered a “donor state.” This means it sends far more in taxes to Washington, DC each year than it receives in federal benefits. My proposed approach would change that.

As with so many other areas of public policy in which the federal government has no specifically enumerated constitutional power or authority, with this approach to funding homeless programs, California, Los Angeles County, and Long Beach would all have so much more in the way of public funding and more direct control and, most importantly, accountability. This, in turn, could only prove more beneficial to Long Beach’s homeless population overall which, to my mind, would be a far more compassionate approach than the one currently employed.