Why California Senior Homelessness Is On the Rise | Corey Jackson

There is a new trend in homelessness in California that's impacting seniors. Now seniors are becoming homeless at the fastest rate than any other demographic because the cost of living has gone up significantly while the income for seniors are usually fixed. If we continue to abandon our seniors who actually were the ones who made the country great, we're just taking advantage of all their labor and all of their sacrifice. My guest today is Corey Jackson, state lawmaker, who's been studying this and has his proposals on solving this problem. He also will discuss what the community can do to help the seniors. The entrepreneurial spirit of our country and our state has made us one of the greatest economies of the world. But the driving need to just take care of me and the less emphasis on taking care of community is also driving many of the problems that we have today. I'm Siamak Khorami. Welcome to Californian Insider. Corey, it's great to have you. Welcome. Thank you for having me. One of the biggest challenges we face in California is homelessness. And now there is a newer trend that a lot of the seniors are losing their homes. Can you tell us what's going on? Sure. Well, we have to recognize what seniors are facing. They're on fixed incomes for the majority of them. So they're getting their social security. Some may be lucky enough to actually have a pension from some type of retirement from their former employers. Some of them have SSI and SSP. But because those are fixed costs, that means that California's higher cost of living, as it continues to go up, seniors are having a hard time keeping pace with that, given the other expenses that they may have as well. And so what we're finding is that seniors aren't able to keep up with the cost of living. And so they're having to miss their utility bills. They may have to skimp on their medications, those type of things. All of that to say is, is that things are getting so bad for so many seniors that they are now falling into homelessness at a quicker rate than other populations. Not a year goes by where I don't do a town hall at a senior center or something, right? And they're telling us we cannot keep up with the cost of living. I might lose my place, but I do not want to go back and live with my children again, right? I want to maintain my independence, which makes it harder to do when they have such more demanding needs as they age. And many of those needs is self-determination, autonomy, right? The dignity to be able to live on your own. And some seniors, you know, want to maintain and live in their home for as long as possible. Do these seniors, do they own their homes or are they renters? Well, what we're finding out is, is that especially those seniors who ended up being renters are the ones that are most vulnerable. Because remember, when you talk about cost of living, if you have your fixed mortgage, right, you don't have to worry about that increase. But maybe your utility bills are increasing, right? Your prescription drugs might be increasing. Other things might be increasing. But the majority, if you are a senior and you're renting, you're in big trouble right now. And there's about 30%, based on the research we did, there's about 30% of seniors in California are renters. And out of the 6 million people that are over 65 years old, so it's a huge number. Huge number. Renters. Do you see that this trend could accelerate? Because when we looked at the data and the numbers, it was shocking. And most of them spend more than half of their income on rent. Absolutely. Well, spending more than half of your income is the California story, right? But particularly, again, with seniors who are on a fixed income, that is even more catastrophic for them. Do I see it as a growing problem? Yes, if we don't do anything as a state. And so the idea is, is that we also have to also understand another trend, which is that seniors at some point are going to be the majority of our population. Which means that not only will, because of the growing population of seniors, we also need to begin to transform our systems to prepare for the largest part of our population to be able to take care of seniors, right? So that's in-home supportive services, making sure that they continue to have the type of health care and subsidies that they need for the prescription drugs, making sure that we are providing more programs where they are able to stay in their home for as long as possible. All those things are going to be important, as well as making sure that SSI and SSP also keeps up with the cost of living. And so we need to continue to adjust for the cost of living when it comes to that program as well. It goes up a little bit, but it's not enough, right? It'll never be enough, right? I mean, we're talking about, again, even right now with six million seniors, any adjustment begins to get into the billions of dollars, right? Now imagine when they become the largest population in California, how much that's going to cost. So we have to continue to be innovative as possible as well, which is why last year I added seniors as a part of California's pilot program for guaranteed income, because I believe that is the quickest way and the most nimble way to be able to get money in the hands of seniors to get them stable. So from what we gathered, the average income from Social Security in California is about $1,200 a month, which is close to rent. Not even close to rent, to tell you the truth. I mean, it depends on where you are in California. The Inland Empire used to be one of the most cost-effective regions to be able to live. I mean, $1,200 these days may get you a one-bedroom if you're lucky. It probably wouldn't even do that these days, right? And so we have to deal with what is, how do we deal with the cost of living or find another way to, again, get more money in the pockets of seniors so that they can spend it on whatever way will keep them stable. Now, you mentioned you want to do guaranteed income for seniors. Is it all the seniors or is it different types of people that are struggling? Well, I think the first thing you have to do is making sure that those that are most in need get it first. Right? And so I really consider it more of a face-in approach. I think the way we do the guaranteed income program is that we get the money to or give it to counties to be able to administer it, usually through a nonprofit intermediary, and they get to decide what the requirements are and what the eligibility rules are on that. It may look different from region to region, right? If I say from Sacramento that only those who are at, you know, $50,000 a year, that goes a longer way in Coachella than it does in San Francisco. We need enough flexibility. We do not want another rigid program like we have with our federal programs because when you become rigid, people always get lost in the cracks. So how do we make sure it's responsible in terms of our fiduciary responsibility, but at the same time as nimble enough to making sure that we take care of any senior who may be on the verge of homelessness? We talked to some of our friends in the County of San Diego. They told us this is a really big issue for them. Oh, absolutely. They actually tried this, and they also encouraged some of the seniors to move in with each other as roommates, and they had some success with that. Have you guys thought about that? Oh, absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day, when you think about any population that first came to the United States, it was recognized that people need to pool resources together so that they can withstand the toughest times and so that everyone has an opportunity to be able to thrive. And so I think that there is no doubt that when people come together, share resources, that that is always the best way to go, particularly with seniors, because we also know that seniors also suffer from issues of isolation, issues of loneliness. And the more lonely you are, the more isolated you are, the lower your life expectancy is. And so I think it's a win-win for us to create those type of programs for those who are able to. But then we also have to recognize there are those who, for whatever reason, may not be a good idea to bump with someone else, all right? I don't recommend anyone to live with me. But I think we have got to make sure that it's all hands on deck, all the above approach to making sure that we solve this problem. And one of the things we looked into is senior living is very expensive. It's $5,000 to $10,000 a month. Believe it or not, even with that higher cost, it's better than a care facility. It's better than a hospital stay. And the reason why it's at a higher cost is because with those senior living facilities, it comes with a whole lot of other services to making sure that they stay healthy, making sure that they have proper nutrition, making sure that they feel safe and making sure that they have activities. All of those things also come with it. Now, the question is, are the rates based upon the realities of how much it costs or are the rates based upon how much profit you can get? And so we still have to look at some more issues when it comes to that to see what exactly it is. But senior living facilities is the next best thing to be able to do, particularly when a senior doesn't have anywhere else to go. And in terms of the budget issues, the state is facing budget issues. And there was this huge spending on homelessness. Can you tell us what are your thoughts? Is it possible to do this project to help the seniors when there's this budget? Oh, absolutely. First, I always push back when someone says that California has budget issues. We don't have budget issues. We have priority issues. And what do I mean by that? It is hard to say that the fifth largest economy in the world does not have enough money when we're bigger than all countries, except four. So what I always say is we have to reevaluate what we're spending our money on. And I always fight for making sure that we prioritize our most vulnerable populations because the most vulnerable populations end up in crisis. It's going to cost more money to get them out of crisis than it was to keep them stable. And this last budget that we just did was a perfect example when everyone was fearing huge cuts to our social safety net, huge cuts to our most vulnerable. We proved that if we rearrange our priorities that it can be done in a balanced and thoughtful way. If you like California Insider and you'd like to know what's going on in California, make sure to check out Epoch Times. This is a newspaper that started by a group of Chinese Americans because of human rights abuses in China and now is starting to grow here. Make sure to go to the Epoch Times website and check out the California section where you can get a lot of fresh perspectives on what's going on in California. Now let's go back to the interview. And Corey, you seem to really care about this population and have you looked into the 24 billion that we've been spending on the homelessness in the last few years? And some of that is going to housing and probably a lot. It's hard to tell where is this money going. Have you looked into using some of this money for the senior, some of the money that's already allocated? One of the things that I have advocated for is particularly California's HomeKey program where we were designating money for certain kinds of housing for certain kinds of populations. One of the things that I was advocating for was unsuccessful but we'll keep trying is that we designate at least 5% of that money for senior housing programs, projects. I believe that number one, it seems like we are spending a whole lot of money on homelessness and housing because of how deep the hole has been over the decades. Because how big this problem has gotten, right? It is a drop in the bucket of what we really need to be able to catch up to the amount of housing that we need for our population. And so we're going to continue to advocate that at a minimum, at least a billion dollars should be going towards housing every year, at a minimum. But we also need to make sure that we find other ways to incentivize more senior housing, to incentivize builders to be able to do that. Because right now our constitution, as the state says, that the state cannot be involved in building housing itself. And so we either got to do two things. We either got to change our constitution and make sure California can build the housing and maintain the housing that's necessary, like many other developed countries have done throughout the world. Or we have to find ways to continue to incentivize our builders and our municipalities to help carry the load. And in terms of the builders, some complain that the state has a lot of red tapes, like when they want to develop, like CEQA is a law that doesn't allow them to develop. They get sued a lot. And also when they develop, the cost is high. What are your thoughts on that? I agree. As a matter of fact, I'll be doing a bill on housing and more affordable housing this coming legislative session. There's no doubt about that. Even in the Inland Empire, where you can get a whole lot of house for less money compared to Los Angeles or other places. We are even seeing inevitability, young people growing up in places like Moreno Valley and not being able to buy a home in the community that they grew up in. We have got to do more, but we've actually made some great strides over the last three years. We are incentivizing certain kind of housing to be exempted from CEQA requirements as long as it meets the state priorities when it comes to those things. We've made great strides. Our ADU laws have created some great outcomes when it comes to getting more housing being built on private property. We are going to start, we're starting to see even more CEQA exemptions that I think we're going to continue to go at the heart of making sure that we're eliminating as many barriers as possible to building the housing that we need. Going back to the seniors, do you think there's a societal problem where in our country, we may not pay enough attention to the elders? And a lot of times these elders have done hard work to get us to where we are. They're somebody's parents, somebody's uncles. The entrepreneurial spirit of our country and our state has made us one of the greatest economies of the world. But the driving need to just take care of me and the less emphasis on taking care of community is also driving many of the problems that we have today. There was a time where it was just understood that someone in the family finds themselves in trouble. There will always be a space for you somewhere within the family structure, right? May not like the rules, but there'll be a place for you. There'll be a bed for you. There'll be a couch for you, something. But we've also began to have a culture, unfortunately, about I made it, why can't you? And because you're not where I am, there must be something wrong with you. But those of us who come from diverse backgrounds also understand there's something systemic. That's also the problem, where if you do not do this, this, and that, it's almost impossible for you to make it now, particularly in the Golden State. And so we have got to change. We have to change our perspective, who is worthy of help? Because it was actually a more community-centered approach that actually made America great in the first place. And if we continue to abandon our seniors, who actually were the ones who made the country great, we're just taking advantage of all their labor and all of their sacrifice. We have a moral issue if we do not prioritize our seniors, because at some point they prioritized us. Is there a way to bring the community way of thinking back? Well, I think the best way to do it is first for us to mimic it ourselves. We have to set the example. Many people are heads of their own households now, or they're thinking of creating their own families pretty soon. It has to be done with intention. People have come in, when people first come to the country, which is all of us, unless you're Native Americans, the only way to survive was to retain communities. Which is why we have Little Africa in some cities, Koreatown in some cities. The idea is that they came and coalesced together, shared resources, and helped each other to be successful. And I think that if we are going to have a 21st century economy, if we're going to have a 21st century future to maintain, particularly California's dominance in the world, that without family, without true community, we will not be able to keep up with the rest of the world. Now, is this one of the reasons you got into public service? It is one of the reasons. I mean, social worker by training, I have my master's and my doctorate in social work. And so dealing with complex issues, facing human beings is our thing. We specialize in getting messy. I thought that this was a particularly important time in our history where the decisions that we make today will determine the next 50 years of what the state is going to look like and the challenges that it may or may not face. And we are at a really big tipping point right now when it comes to setting the next generation up for success. We're at a tipping point right now when we talk about whether people can make it here in California again. I wanted to be a part of that. And I also am one who am willing to question current structures to find out if this is the best we can do or whether we're choosing to ignore something or we're waiting for someone else to help solve the problem. And if you look at the bills that I've introduced in the last two years, it is my hope that people can see that I'm doing my best to help tackle the issues of the day. Now, was there something that triggered you to run, to get involved in public office in the state level? Yes. Too many people told me no. I was an advocate back in the community. I ran my own nonprofit. I was a political action chair for NAACP. I saw so many issues and wanted to propose solutions for it. And too many times I didn't feel like I actually had a representative here in Sacramento. And so I got tired of feeling that way. And I felt that I had a certain skill set and work ethic to be able to contribute to the discourse here in Sacramento. And what were those? Can you give us a couple of examples of what happened? Like things that people didn't want to... Well, I don't want to tell on nobody. The Inland Empire is going to be probably the second largest, at some point will be the second largest Black population in the state of California, outside of Los Angeles. We rarely had any state legislators from the Inland Empire who are African-American. I'm the only one from the Inland Empire. And whenever I began to... This was probably in the height of the George Floyd movement, there were so many issues that I felt we could have been tackling here in Sacramento. When I went to my own representatives on a whole host of issues, I never got enough traction to be able to make sure that we're dealing with those issues from an Inland Empire perspective. And so I think I encourage anyone, if you're tired of people telling you no, and you think people think that what you're proposing is crazy, then you should run. And then you can show them how crazy you may be in Sacramento. Before that, you were involved in public service, right? You were involved in some school boards and you also in social work. You've dedicated yourself to public service. Can you tell us more? When I was in high school, my first two years, my freshman and sophomore year, I was just like any other kid, particularly African-American boy. I did nothing but sports. I did football until I stopped growing. I wrestled, I played baseball. And then my freshman career exploration teacher showed me there was another way. There were other things I could be doing as well and got me involved in creating clubs, creating organizations at the school. And then eventually when it came to my senior year, it was my high school's turn to elect someone to represent all the students on the school board in Rialto School District. We always talk about being voluntold. I was more than voluntold. I was threatened by my mentor to apply and to run. And lo and behold, the first time I ever ran for anything, I won and represented all the students in the Rialto School District for a year and just opened my eyes to all the different elected officials, all the different community organizations and all those things. And I was always, as a young person, I was a latchkey kid. My mom was single mother, three kids. We were not always good kids. Well, by the time I woke up, she was coming back home from a night shift. By the time I got home, she was already gone to work. And so for me, I was always that yes kid. If you asked me to do something, I was like, sure, I ain't got nothing else to do. I'll do it. And it just created a sense of service. And at one point I tried to stop because I got frustrated. Service is a tricky thing sometimes. I try to stay away from just service and politics and things like that. And I just realized I wasn't happy. And so I just realized at an early age that if I'm not serving in some capacity and my work is not meaningful, meaning it's helpful to other people, that I'm just not happy in life. And so I'm just trying to stay happy at the end of the day. But I'm hopefully can do some good work along the way. We are honored to be sponsored by Shen Yun. Shen Yun Performing Arts is reviving 5,000 years of lost Chinese traditional culture. It takes you back in time to the magical world of ancient China with a unique blend of brilliant dancing, beautiful costumes and legends coming to life. The show choreography and production values are top notch. However, it isn't just a technical ability of the dancers. It's the inner beauty and the devotion of the artist that will stir your soul to move you to tears. Make sure to go see it this year. Go to Shenyun.com and book your tickets today. It was spectacular. So beautiful. Gosh, I thought I was going to heaven. Oh, it was electric. I'm getting chills talking about it. It gets a 10 from me, that's for sure. It was that good. Absolutely marvelous. Hands down the best show I've ever seen. For those people that are not in service, can you give some examples of those moments that would make you happy, that make serving worth it? Oh, wow. Just this past week, right, gave away over a thousand turkeys in the community. Making sure that people feel loved, making sure that people have one less expense they have to commit to is something that I've always enjoyed doing. And I used to chair my local Salvation Army board and those holiday service projects and programs were one of the key things, you know, that makes you happy. When I started my nonprofit, the first programs we did were create mentoring programs for middle school and high school students in my community that I grew up, not that I grew up in, but that I represent today. It's that constant drumbeat of serving people, uplifting people that sometimes it feels you get that instant gratification, but for a while it may take a long time. But when you finally do see it, it's that joy that you get that you'll never, that'll never leave your soul. And the time when you were thinking about giving up and serving, what was that like? Why that happened? Wow. Well, I was young and impatient. Well, I'm still impatient. So maybe it's because I was young. And you're still young. You know, I always felt that you always see a lot of contradictions in life. And one of the first biggest disappointments I remember having was, I was right out of high school and I got an internship at the Democratic National Convention when it was in Los Angeles in 2000. It was that infamous Al Gore and Bush election. If you know downtown, you have to find some parking way over somewhere else. And from the parking lot to the office every day, I would have to walk over homeless people. And here we are in this big old tower. And free food flowing everywhere, right? Having access to some of the most powerful people in the nation and in the world. And right outside, you had this homelessness happening. And I just saw that. I just saw those contradictions wherever I went. When you're young, you're more pure at heart. And you're like, how can this be? Why isn't someone fixing this? All that kind of stuff. And I got discouraged. Was I really making a difference? So I stepped away from it for about a year or two. But I always felt that I always came back to it because at the end of the day, doing something was better than doing nothing. Do you think now at your role, do you think you can have a really big impact on what you saw? Because this is homelessness state is facing. Absolutely. Being on the budget committee, also being the budget chair for human services, which is California Social Safety Net and all the different programs that I've been talking about. There's not very many people that I have to now persuade to be able to make things a priority. And so I think that when you're at the table, you are able to do a whole lot more than trying to apply pressure for people to do things. And so, absolutely. I mean, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me thinking that I can actually do some good. And I mean, I've done good since the very first time that I stepped foot here. I've been able to achieve some things that I would never have done if I was not here. I believe that as long as I believe I can still do good, I will stay here. Soon as I don't, you better believe I'll go somewhere else because I never needed this. I didn't need a job. I left an organization that I built for over a decade to be able to be here. That was my life's work. And so I see now my ability to, instead of serving hundreds of kids in my community, I can now serve millions of kids in the state of California. And now what do you recommend to younger people, like the younger version of yourself when you were probably disappointed in public service? What do you recommend? I don't know. I mean, I believe we should always give young people the space to express themselves and to explore, to go on their own journeys, both filled with happiness, joy, and a little pain is also helpful along the way. I would say find something you're willing to do for the rest of your life. May not be something you're paid for, but find something that you're willing to do for the rest of your life, that you're willing to dedicate yourself to. And just doing that in and of itself can take you half of your life, but speak out as John Lewis would say, right? Speak out whenever you see something is unjust. And if someone tries to tell you why it's not unjust, sit down with them and listen to try to understand because you could be wrong, right? But you could also be right. And so if you find yourself in a place where you see something's wrong, find a way to speak out about it. It could be joining an organization in the community, or it could be creating your own, or it could just be showing up and making sure that you're speaking out and asking questions. We have so many problems right now in California because too many people stayed silent for too long. And so I would not dare, if I told myself, I would probably tell myself chill out, but I wouldn't tell other people chill out because I probably should chill out now too, but I still don't listen. So I think that overall, we need young people to decide what they want this world to look like and begin to work at building it now because one day they're gonna inherit this. And we need them to explore and take risks as much as they can so that they can be prepared with a little bit of knowledge and wisdom when it's their turn to be in Sacramento one day. And what about culture of service? You seem to be very big in community service. Is there a way to bring that more to California? One thing I can say about California, there's always places to serve, right? It doesn't matter what community you're in. If you wanna serve, there's a place for you. Even in the governor's priority in terms of the volunteer corps he's set up all over the state, right? The state is investing in volunteer opportunities. Schools are investing in community opportunities. Nonprofit organizations are invested in it. You just have to ask yourself, are you living your life for yourself or for others? Because if you want an opportunity to serve others, you will not have to search for very long in your own community. There is no reason why you shouldn't be serving. You mentioned we have a lot of problems in California. From where you're sitting, do you see hope? Absolutely do see hope. If you have seen from our assembly and state Senate leaders, they have expressed that this year they're gonna be focusing on issues regarding the cost of living here in California. They've heard the message loud and clear, people, especially from noisy members like me who have just expressed that it's time for us to roll up our sleeves reprioritize our funding as a state and uplift people here in California. The 20th century's way of being successful in California is no longer a guarantee. We have to create a 21st century way of being successful and creating your own dream and fulfilling your own dream here in California. I'm so excited to be able to work with the leaders in any way I can to make sure that people throughout this state can finally feel that California is a golden state because for too many, they feel like this is more of a silver or bronze state right now. Assembly member Corey Jackson, it was great to have you on California Insider. Thank you for having me.