Why can’t we “solve” homelessness?
The answer is not as simple as many people think. While we are building more homes, solving homelessness requires more than just housing, it requires helping people move from crisis to stability, breaking the cycle and preventing it before it starts.
In February of this year I addressed common misconceptions regarding homelessness and explained the legal, financial and systemic constraints our cities face in addressing this challenge. While we have some limitations, we can also be creative when coming up with solutions. Our approach rests on four principles: safety, partnerships, prevention and investment in solutions that work.
Restoring Safety, Creating Stability
The Magnolia Corridor, particularly between Van Buren and La Sierra, is an area of the city heavily impacted by homelessness. Over time, deteriorating motels in this area have become magnets for criminal activity like drug use and sex trafficking. Vulnerable individuals living in these hotels have little opportunity to connect to the help they need. So addressing homelessness requires more than connecting people to services—it also requires addressing the conditions that keep people trapped in crisis.
Untreated substance use can make the path to stability difficult. A study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 37% of surveyed Californians experiencing homelessness reported regularly using illicit substances. This underscores why our response must address both the immediate conditions people are living in and the underlying barriers that prevent them from achieving long-term housing stability.
Along the Magnolia Corridor, the City launched a coordinated effort to hold negligent hotel owners accountable. Five hotel owners were billed for costs arising from repeated police responses to their properties. The Riverside Police Department increased enforcement through regular patrols and targeted operations, while the City's Public Safety and Engagement Team (PSET) continued connecting homeless individuals with shelter, treatment, and supportive services.
After more than two years of investigation and legal work, the City secured a court-appointed receivership for the Riverside Inn & Suites on Magnolia Avenue, allowing a receiver to take control of this troubled property, oversee operations, and complete necessary repairs.
The Riverside Inn & Suites is the first of five properties where the City is pursuing similar legal remedies. This milestone reflects years of collaboration and the leadership of former Councilmember Jim Perry, who championed this effort throughout the process. By combining accountability with outreach and services, the City is working to disrupt the cycles of instability that contribute to homelessness.
A New Approach to Freeway Encampments
Another example of this coordinated approach is our work to address encampments along state freeways. For years, people have lived in unsafe conditions along freeway corridors, while cities were unable to intervene because those areas are state property. This limited our ability to provide outreach, remove hazardous conditions, and connect people with services.
Riverside helped change that. We became one of the first cities in California to partner with Caltrans on an agreement that allows our Public Safety and Engagement Team (PSET) to work directly along state freeway property to provide outreach, remove debris, and connect homeless individuals with available resources. This partnership allows us to respond more quickly and compassionately while ensuring the state helps support the work happening in our community.
Since this agreement took effect, City crews have:
- Mitigated 728 encampment locations
- Removed more than 91 tons of debris
- Issued 246 code violations
- Made 48 arrests
Shared Responsibility, Better Outcomes
Another important step has been the adoption of a new ordinance requiring organizations to notify the City before transporting homeless individuals into Riverside. The goal is simple: to ensure services can be coordinated before someone is dropped off, rather than after the fact.
Despite significant investments by both the City and State, the supply of emergency shelter beds and affordable housing remains limited. At the same time, Riverside serves as a regional hub for hospitals, behavioral health facilities, shelters, recuperative care programs, and the county jail. Because of this, too often individuals are transported into Riverside without prior coordination or a plan for supportive services, placing additional strain on already limited local resources and reducing our ability to respond effectively to those already here. The new ordinance is intended to improve coordination, not prevent people from receiving care.
Organizations transporting homeless individuals into Riverside must provide written notification at least 24 hours in advance. This allows City staff and service providers to coordinate available resources, identify the jurisdiction of origin, and ensure individuals are connected to appropriate services rather than released onto the street without support.
Just as importantly, the ordinance reinforces that homelessness is a regional challenge requiring regional solutions. By tracking where individuals are being transported from, Riverside can work more effectively with neighboring jurisdictions and service providers to improve coordination, strengthen accountability, and ensure responsibility is shared rather than shifted from one community to another.
That coordination matters because homelessness response requires significant resources. According to City estimates, it costs approximately $63,000 to provide the shelter, rental assistance, housing navigation, case management, and outreach services needed to stabilize one unsheltered individual. Better coordination helps ensure those limited resources are used wisely while improving continuity of care for the people who need them most.
Bringing State Resources Home and Investing in Solutions that Work
While we continue taking enforcement action here at home, addressing homelessness also requires sustained investment. That's why we are fighting in Sacramento to ensure Riverside has the resources needed to keep making progress.
Each year, cities across California rely on the state's Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) program to fund many of the outreach, shelter, housing, and prevention services that help move people off the streets and keep others from experiencing homelessness in the first place. This year, as Chair of the California Big City Mayors Coalition, I led mayors from across the state in successfully advocating to restore this funding to the state budget.
We secured $900 million for HHAP Round 7. We also strengthened accountability by ensuring unspent HHAP dollars stay dedicated to homelessness solutions and are redirected to communities putting them to work, rather than sitting idle or reverting to the State's General Fund. Similarly, we cut unnecessary red tape so funding can reach local communities faster.
Of that $900M in funding, Riverside County, the City of Riverside, and the Riverside City & County Continuum of Care are anticipated to receive approximately $18 million, including roughly $9 million directly for the City of Riverside.
So what does that investment mean for our community?
For Riverside, it means real people getting a second chance. Through the first five rounds of HHAP funding, Riverside has reached nearly 500 people through street outreach, helping connect them with services and support. We created 133 shelter beds so folks slept on a bed rather than the street, helped 125 individuals quickly move from homelessness into housing, and prevented more than 200 households from becoming homeless by helping them remain in their homes.
Just as importantly, we are using these dollars where they will make the greatest difference. In Riverside, one in five of our unsheltered individuals have experienced homelessness for less than a year, and one of the leading causes is simply not having enough income to afford housing. Seniors over the age of 55 represent the largest group of people newly experiencing homelessness. Those realities are shaping our investments. HHAP funds are being reallocated to maximize their impact, including expanding rental assistance, supporting 25 units at Mulberry Gardens Senior Apartments, and investing in other eligible homelessness response efforts. Helping someone remain housed is not only life-changing for that individual but is also one of the most effective and fiscally responsible ways to reduce homelessness.
So, what are we doing about homelessness?
We are taking action on every front: building more housing, expanding outreach, creating shelter opportunities, preventing homelessness before it happens, holding bad actors accountable, strengthening partnerships, and fighting for the resources our community needs.
There is no single solution and no overnight fix, but every person we help move toward housing, every family we help keep housed, and every barrier we remove represents meaningful progress.
The work ahead is significant, but so is our commitment. Riverside will continue leading with compassion, accountability, and action, because every resident deserves a safe community, and every person deserves the opportunity to find a place to call home.
