California voters have made it clear that they regard chronic homelessness as one of the top problems facing the Golden State. That’s especially true in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where recent elections saw incumbents ousted over the issues of persistent homelessness and street crimes. The public has lost patience.

Helping people so they don’t have to live in public spaces is both a moral duty and a practical necessity. Two Fairfax residents, Mike Ghiringhelli and Sean Fitzgerald, have devised a humane alternative.

Lack of public money isn’t the problem; it’s limited positive results. The Hoover Institution reports, “Since 2019, California has spent about $24 billion on homelessness, but in this five-year period, homelessness increased by about 30,000, to more than 181,000.” Despite the good intentions of social-service providers financed by state and local governments, the quandary remains.

Until recently, courts blocked efforts by cities and counties from prohibiting homeless folks from camping in public parks, on sidewalks and along fire-prone hillsides. That’s changing. San Rafael and Novato have seen judges lifting injunctions, enabling them to soon commence enforcement to clear camps.

Marin County’s 2024 “point in time” count is revealing. There were 1,090 Marin residents experiencing homelessness. “84% of the homeless have no employment, 31% of those can’t work or weren’t seeking employment.”

These include “chronic” homeless, camping under freeway overpasses and along San Rafael’s Andersen Drive. The count indicates, “45% of the homeless self-report a psychiatric or emotional condition and 38% report alcohol or drug abuse … 41% have post-traumatic stress disorder.”

There’s another category of the unhoused: the working poor. Those who’ve faced unexpected financial and emotional hardships including sudden loss of employment, domestic abuse or a spouse’s death. Some have made poor decisions to reside in high-cost regions. Given lack of education or employable skills, they’ll never be financially viable in coastal California. In much of America, these are the residents of mobile home parks.

Despite good intentions, some homeless activists do more harm than good to those they’re supposedly helping. As Fitzgerald and Ghiringhelli put it, “Those arguing for unmanaged encampments as housing are leading communities and campers into the abyss.”

Both Ghiringhelli, who was elected to the Fairfax Town Council in November, and Fitzgerald were involved in the movement to clear a homeless camp in Contratti Park near children’s sports fields.

They understand that people suffering from mental illness and drug dependency need a clean, safe place to live along with psychiatric care. Their answer is “Compassion City.” It’s modeled on “Community First Village,” a pioneering project crafted and financed by the Texas city of Austin, operated by the faith-based Mobile Loaves and Fishes.

It’s more than a community of tiny homes, though that’s a practical aspect. Ghiringhelli and Fitzgerald summarize what Austin’s Community First Village is today and what Compassion City could be in Marin.

It’s a “single centralized temporary housing campus with facilities for people with mental illness and addiction challenges. … The mentally ill or addicted would remain on campus until they can assimilate back into society.”

Next door, separated but sharing resources, is another campus for unhoused people who aren’t mentally ill. It includes tiny houses, health and human services, a cafeteria, recreational space and space for mobile homes.

Ideally, Marin’s Compassion City would be a component of a larger development that includes workforce and market-rate housing. The quandary is where to locate such a site that’s distant from high fire areas and near transportation.

My suggestion: Compassion City would be an appropriate component at Catholic Charities’ owned St. Vincent School site near Terra Linda. If coupled with workforce and market-rate homes, it would go far to fulfill Marin’s state mandated housing allocation.

It would simultaneously deliver safe housing and essential social services for those who will be soon evicted from unsanitary tent camps on streets, parks and hillsides. If others have better ideas, let’s hear them.

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes on local issues Sundays and Wednesdays. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.