As faith leaders from diverse traditions, we are united in our belief in the dignity of every person. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s proposal to arrest homeless individuals who repeatedly refuse shelter is not just ineffective — it is immoral.
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Arresting homeless individuals for refusing shelter contradicts the moral call to compassion, human dignity, justice and community responsibility found in the many faith traditions found in the City.
“If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community … do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.” — Deuteronomy 15:7-8.
Criminalizing homelessness ignores its root causes, including Silicon Valley’s extreme wealth gap and lack of affordable housing. It also ignores the fact that many avoid shelters due to unsafe conditions, strict rules or past trauma in shelter environments.
For example, bans on couples, families and pets force people to choose between shelter and staying with loved ones. And shelter curfews and rules make it hard to maintain employment.
Arresting homeless individuals at great taxpayer expense only deepens their suffering and reinforces fear. Instead, we must invest more in permanent housing, supportive services and mental health and substance abuse treatment.
The city of San Jose and Santa Clara County both fund outreach teams and case management for those who live outside; however, these approaches are underfunded and understaffed. Deepening funding for intensive, wrap-around and innovative outreach models is a smarter investment than standing up a new, costly policing regime that will ask police to be de facto case managers. Worse, a criminalization model could turn case managers into police.
Rather than criminalizing homelessness, San Jose should intensify its collaboration with the county, nonprofits and faith communities to evaluate current outreach strategies and level of investment to determine whether they are meeting the moment.
At the same time, we should recognize that there is a limit to what outreach professionals can do when the number of homeless individuals is more than 5,500 and the number of available “beds” is 2,900 (which are virtually full).
The great faith traditions represented in Silicon Valley call us to compassionately care for those who are suffering, not punish them for systemic failures.
We are reminded of the story of the Buddha and the leper. In this story, Buddha reaches out to the homeless leper teaching us that true compassion transcends fear and stigma. When others recoiled in disgust from sick and suffering people, the Buddha cared for them, showing that healing and dignity come from love. Likewise, we should not turn away from people who are homeless or criminalize them.
Faith leaders stand ready to work with the city and county to develop a compassionate, more robust and more effective outreach approach. We urge San Jose to choose compassion over coercion. A just society lifts people up rather than locking them away.
Rev. Jon Pedigo is executive director of People Acting in Community Together. Rev. Steve Pinkston has volunteered at Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall, Elmwood Jail and San Quentin State Prison for 30 years. Dana Magat is senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El and co-founder of Silicon Valley Faith Leaders Collaborative.
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