if you live in san jose you may already be aware of the shortage of police officers out on the street. the ones that are on duty are often fighting serious crimes. and no longer handling transient members of the community. >> you know we need more officers. but you know what we can only do what we can do with what we have. >> handling the homeless population, straight ahead on equal time. >> san jose state university, you're watching equal time. exploring new issues each week. giving equal time to competing points of view. >> hello from the campus of san jose state university. and welcome to this edition of equal time. i'm your host journalism school director bob ruck. the city of san jose is in

silican valley. generally considered to be a well to do place. but here are also people who live a very different lifestyle. we're talking people who are transient. you have not wealthy homes, but places to live under bridges or on the banks of creeks. carlos jimenez has our story. >> in san jose, the homeless population is in the thousands. meet one of the people without a home. larry seckfried. after six years of living on the streets without if police department help, larry thinks the police should be doing more. >> i don't think they should stop us because of the way we look and stuff. but i think they should not judge us either. >> for the most part the community understands. they're frustrated, you know we need more officers. but you know what we can only do what we can do with what we have.

>> the number of people living on the streets is up by 3,000, inspite of help to help the homeless. the agency program housing 1,000, helps to find homes and apartments for 1,000 chronically homeless men and women. >> they also provide rental deposits, rental subsidies. we have close to 100 people who are receiving a monthly subsidy that were homeless and now are in homes. so they're off the streets. >> an estimated 4,000 homeless people are living on the streets on any given night in san jose. but getting into housing is not easy. as anthony cere knows too well. he's been homeless off and on for six years. >> you sit there for months and

get bedbugs and deal with drama. after six months you're back out on the street. where's the benefit? the housing 1,000 two, that's also a joke too. they're only going to provide people for those who are chronic or ssi. those are the main top ones. the second one, anybody who is on the downtown ace team. >> who do the homeless turn to? >> cycling in and out of the street. >> also we look at what many of us can do in our community to pitch in.

welcome back. we've heard a lot about the homeless and the help that they need but what can we do. carla jimenz continues our report. >> the recession has turned to homelessness. volunteering with time and

donating used furniture can help. chavez is working with the city of san jose housing department. she says she looks for the best and most humane solutions to get people off the streets. >> so having somebody out on the streets, cycling in and out of the streets through shelter, and emergency rooms it costs us as taxpayers $60,000 per year. and if we were to house somebody permanently and put them in an apartment of their own, the cost is actually about $16,000. so it's a significant savings. >> we need to stay focused on whether policies have the intended effect of helping homeless people. or whether they may have the opposite effect of hurting them. >> look at all the caltrans clean up they do. it causes people to move around. it is time to do massive clean up. >> inez has also been living on the street for eight years unlike many of us who have

places to call home, he also finds ways to contribute to society by volunteering at the roosevelt community center. >> the only time that i've been homeless out here, they've given me a hard time. i don't do anything to get me that predictment. i try to walk the line, i try to be good. because the people are good to me. no drugs, no alcohol. >> when we come back we'll sit down with a panel of experts when equal time continues.

welcome back to equal time. our focus today is homelessness and long time solutions. let's meet our guests. >> i'm ron samihill a retired police officer from san jose. >> i'm sala and i've been homeless for three years. >> i'm kathy morales moran i work for the city of san jose. >> homelessness has been an issue in america as long as i've been around. you've actually lived the experience. >> yes i have. >> tell the audience a little bit about what that means.

>> being homeless is not, is a big deal. because the majority of people are left to survive on their own. they have little or no resources and surviving every day is very difficult. >> well jackie, you hear this a lot i suspect. tell us what you have experienced here in this area. >> most recently the city of san jose has been putting a lot of attention on homeless encampments. it's estimated there's 50 to 60 of them with people living near the creek in large encampments. the folks who have to live outside are really suffering from having to live outside and being exposed , especially now as we're heading into the cold season, wetness, lack of food, lack of shelter it's really a rough life out there and we need to do something about it. >> the police in our area have been doing an excellent job but this is a challenge. this is not easy to do.

>> a lot of time people living in creek areas become victims. hate crime, other drugs, alcohol, alcohol abuse. one of the other problems is living in the creek they need to cook to eat so they start fires which puts another strain on fire resources to respond to put those fires out. so it is an issue. >> i wonder if you all get a sense of the public watching this, would get the impression we talked about this. we talked about this, we talked about this why aren't there viable solutions. let me start with you. what would be a viable solution for someone who's homeless. what can we do? >> first of all everybody should be on the scale. the majority of people at their camp sites there should be people supervising. they should at least make sure they have clean, clean clothes

or bring by sandwiches or something like that. everything does help. there's a lot of support throughout the community. the problem is when they as far as i know that, it's a lot of people inside shelter and there's a will the of people outside of the shelter. the majority of people say once your 30 days are up you either need to get into a program. there are no easy solutions there. >> and this must have been eye opening for you. >> doing the story has made me realize that there isn't a lot of awareness of what many people in the community can do to contribute in their community by helping. which was basically why i really wanted to do the story. to bring more awareness. and really to learn about how

this affecting our society. especially right now with the down slide of the economy. >> the economy is going to be an issue for a while we suspect. ron, do the police really want us to get the word out there to show up and bring food and do helpful things because does that present problems to them? >> well i think what they need to do is have a designated area that they can donate food and clothing or whatever. the salvation army or goodwill. i think the salvation army does a great job of doing those things. it becomes an issue if they take it directly to an encampment. there's parking issues and just access to and from. >> to help people who are going out into the encampments or into our parks actually feeding people is really a problem. the problem is, folks that want to help out and they bring

food, but what ends up happening is it attracts a lot of people. it leaves trash in the area. people don't have restroom facilities in the area so it creates all kinds of problems. so what we really want to do is try to engage people to get engaged in accomplished programs like salvation army or loaves and fishes or destination home where people can come and get services as well not just get the food. the food promotes the isolation and prevents people from actually seeking out services. so from the city's perspective that's what we want to promote people accessing services so that we can assist people to get off the streets. >> i'm just curious. that sounded like excellent advice from the public. but from your ears how does that sound? >> perfect. it's great. it's advice but it's up to the individual to survive. everybody who are there lost their jobs and homes.

but they're like computer geniuses, they have skills. they know what motivation is back in the real life. as far as living outside, there's camp sites everywhere but you know, well because -- >> are there confrontations though, and again most of us watching have no sense of what you go through. >> exactly. >> so what do you actually live through when you're homeless in the city? >> overnight it's hard enough, but if you don't know how to survive, you can sit with someone and they will actually teach you how to survive. so they won't let you go. if you feel like you're really sick or something they will take you to the hospital. so but you really have to come back outside any way and learn how to survive. >> now that's the harsh reality. >> it's true. >> of america's time. what does your research show? >> i have learned through the

research that the city of san jose is helping many of these people that are homeless for example the housing department works with -- there are organizations that actually put a lot of the people that are out on the streets into homes. eventually it saves a lot of money for the state of california because they don't have to sent people to clean the streets. and they wouldn't have to for example if a person went into a hospital, the taxpayers, that money wouldn't be going -- >> the greater societal question is are we ever going to get a handle on this? will it ever end. do you think it's possible that it would ever end? >> we're committed to making it

end. from our perspective we use the housing first model. which means to get someone into housing so they can stabilize their condition is the most rtanimpopoint. because people need a place to live and it's easier for people to address their issues whether it's alcoholism or it's drug addition. or it's needing job skills. that's hard to do on the street when you're just basically trying to survive. so having a home is the first step and we're really challenging san jose because our housing costs are astronomical. so the costs to build an affordable housing rental encampment has to be 100% funded for people who can't afford anything. so that's the problem, where are we going to get the money to build the housing that is needed. >> astronomical cost. the public looks at that and says we can hardly survive on

ourselves. but not much is being done quickly. it's being done by churches and synagogues. the authorities have to face the reality of violent attacks and all kinds of issues and vandalism and all those things that the police have to handle. what are some of the stories you've heard about the police have had to deal with relateing to the homeless. >> well one of the issues with the homeless is alcohol and drug abuse. so typically we have to respond to calls involving people who are doing drugs or high on drugs. it's violence in these encampments so you have to respond to that. it does use up resources. we were talking about housing and having to get money to build housing units. i would think that some of the federal properties that we own that we pay a lot of money just

to maintain that aren't even being used could be converted to homeless shelters or facilities. that might be something to look at. >> we're definitely always looking to see if we can use things like surplus properties. we're looking at motels that are under utilized to try to create housing opportunities very quickly. but the cost for the police actually go out and do investigations or to have to go and deal with a crime or the hospital costs are much higher to our society. so it's much less expensive if we would have actually house somebody than it is if we have to pay for their medical care, their time that someone has to spend in jail. police time. all of that is way more expensive than housing someone. and that's why we really think that we can provide housing that's a great way to stabilize someone and to provide lots of opportunities for it and much less expensive. >> i think a lot of people would look at the number of places that are available like you're suggesting and maybe

turn to shelters but who's going to pay for that. how safe are they going to be. who's going to maintain them. and eventually taxpayers will be called on to look at that. we've had city after city around the country in my travels who have tried to address this all kinds of way and never have done it effectively. i'm curious is the next generation going to get it right? because we don't seem to be able to even come close to putting it into halt. any thought on that? >> awareness. and just basically how you can help by contributing your time. any used items that you have. and just volunteering your time into helping other organizations. >> do schools schools schools -- do students actually think that way. >> i haven't seen anybody who's thought about it. that's pretty much why i wanted to cover the story. because i realize there isn't a lot of awareness in students. >> you organized this and you gave a human face to the issue.

it's a term until you talk to a human being who's living it. you say you work for the government during the day but you still volunteer at night. >> yes, i do. my background would be poverty. i was born in 1964, but i wasn't really -- there weren't homeless shelters there either. so we lived in low income housing. my parents they all worked. i'm like the sixth child of my parents and we had several homes. so we haven't lost any of them so the homes are still on the market. when i look back at my background, it's not really the homeless. my great grandmother they survived. they accomplished to move on in life. basically you have to be

prepared. i mean for the future you -- you have to be prepared. >> we have church communities and groups, young people doing wonderful things to help. >> and give back to the community. >> give back to the community. >> because if you are successful of leaving and continuing on they would like you to come back and volunteer your time. patience, i have lost a few friends that were homeless. so the government came back there and they told me, they could give us a woman's shelter. they gave us a woman's shelter in los angeles. but the population, the majority of the women they will not leave there. >> the housing authority, more is expected, more is expected, more is expected. how does that work for your

colleagues and people trying to make something happen. can you handle all of the requests? >> we absolutely cannot handle all of the requests. with the resolution of the housing department, now that that's gone we're going to have to find a new source for housing. that's going to be a key issue how do we find it. we don't have the resources now and we have to focus on how we can find it because the problem is just getting bigger. >> and you talk about the police perspective. what else did you find out? >> i found out that although he was on the police -- >> 32 years i think he said. >> things have definitely changed. >> how so. >> first of all the economy. a lot of cops are not on the streets anymore crime rates

have gone up and i wanted to kind of see the perspective of what it was like when he was in law enforcement and compare it to today's world. >> do you see law enforcement changing its philosophy toward the homeless or do they see it as it's just a continuous issue. we have to deal with but we have other things to do as well? >> well, it's changed dramatically over the last 10 or 15 years. we've seen a lot more homeless people, they're more visible, they're in the streets. we have to deal with them. >> but i'm thinking internally. when the police departments around the bay area and around the country, is there a mind set it's just something we have to deal with. so we will but we have other things to do or are they looking for ways to help address this issue? >> they have to prioritize their responses to calls for service. and it's not a real high

priority. naturally we're going to go to calls for service that are emergency bases first then on down the line. so the homeless situation is kind of at the bottom of the pile sort to speak. >> that's the perception a lot of people get. >> right. yeah. and that's true because you get more calls for service. violence that require a police response, other than the homeless irk homeless -- homeless issue that's up and in your face. the biggest problem for law enforcement is where to take these people when they encounter them. we used to have a mission on market and that's the place we used to take people when they were down and out. but now it's limited where you can take these people. >> i think that's the key

because we don't want homelessness to be criminalized. we don't want to create less opportunity for people who are already struggling. so the police arrest someone or they don't want to give them a ticket. that doesn't solve the problem either. they're going to go to jail which is expensive for all of us. or they're going to give them a ticket and you have to have an address in order to have the ticket sent to you and if you're homeless, you don't have an address. police response we don't think is the most effective response. certainly the police are a good partner with us in identifying people and really providing resources like they did in the past. i think that's a great role for the police department to have. but we really don't want to criminalize the activities that most people are most of the time engaging. it doesn't solve the problem long term. >> recently i was talking to a medical person about it.

they kept emphasizing to me that in the medical world they work on preventative medicine instead of crisis management. you want to try to prevent it from getting to that point. you take that mind set and you mutt -- and you put it into the homeless issue. most importantly there are people who are homeless who are qualified who could still work, who can still find jobs. what is it that we can do to motivate people to want to go get jobs, to go and get training. motivate people. >> true, true. i believe they should leave the doors open. any door that anybody can get an opportunity in. we have our welfare. we can make it with that. but the majority of people return to school or find, seek employment. so i believe in them because

i've made it too. >> are you aware that there are some people who think you've given up. people who are homeless don't try hard enough. >> well, no. i don't think that's true. >> you don't see that in your experience. >> no. >> because every time our students do a story about the homeless and we do these every year we always find people with qualifications and backgrounds and experiences. it would suggest with a little more help and a little more patience and attention, this person could move back into society and the business and be successful. have you had that experience when you knocked on doors to try to find out or the homeless have not been able to come out. >> my experience i find that many are still very, they have goals. and they're determined. they don't want to be seen as someone who's not intellectual. they don't want to be seen as

someone that is a criminal. >> they want the dignity and respect. which is what we all want. >> right. >> and you tried to get that point across the people. you're going to hear about budgets and costs and expectations and needs. and it's too much of an investment of effort. is that a slap in the face to your efforts and your trying to find a solution? >> the more that we can all recognize this as a problem, that it's a community problem. it's the problem that students can address. employers can address. people who live in the community but we all need to work together to find an effective solution. and we have a program called destination home which is a partnership between the city and county and nonprofits and the community which is focused on creating a plan on how we are going to solve the issue of homelessness. >> and those are things we have to build on. >> we have to build on those efforts. >> i've heard stories that even faculty are living out of their cars at times at universities

like ours that's something we have to address. i thank you all for helping to put a face and content of information on this very important issue. and i thank you for listening. we hope you will come back for another edition of equal time. ,

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