Fresno’s New War on Drugs and Unhoused People

It has been a long year

And I am still here.

I am cold,

So very cold.

I sit on a dirty blanket

Next to a building made of polished granite.

I watch people laugh and kiss, and feel like I am from another planet.

How did I get here? Believe you me, I did not plan it.

—From Is This My Home? (2018) by Tim Akpinar

Stereotyping and Castigation 

The Fresno Madera Continuum of Care’s annual count and survey of the unhoused community of Fresno estimates that 36% of people living on the streets have a substance-use disorder (national estimates are similar). Perhaps the number is greater because the Fresno Police Department (FPD), the Fresno business community and many Fresno community members believe that most unhoused people have drug problems.

The Fresno No Camping Ordinance, implemented in late September, has led to more than 300 arrests and numerous citations. The training bulletin issued to police officers on the ordinance’s enforcement calls for officers to arrest anyone who refuses services. The only service offered is being put on a long waiting list for substance-use disorder treatment.

Obviously, the police are stereotyping and targeting people. It’s a new “war on drugs” intended to mandate treatment, a practice that, based on empirical evidence, has been a dismal failure. It punishes people who have a health issue.

Housing First with supportive services is the longer-term solution. Arresting, citing and fining people is both inhumane and costly. It makes life much more difficult for our fellow human beings and destroys their chances of ever getting off the streets.

Addiction Is a Health Issue

Dr. Gabor Maté is a well known Canadian physician and author with a background in family practice and a special interest in childhood development, trauma and potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health, and addictions. In his book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Maté challenges the dominant narrative that often frames addiction as a criminal or moral issue rather than a complex health condition rooted in emotional and psychological pain.

Maté argues that the so-called war on drugs has often turned into a war on the people who use drugs. This approach, he contends, is fundamentally flawed as it criminalizes individuals for their health issues, contributing to a cycle of stigma, marginalization and social exclusion.

The City of Fresno is using its ordinance to do just that. City Council Member Miguel Arias, a prime mover of the ordinance, often refers to some of his family members who have substance-abuse problems and refuse treatment, seemingly to justify his support for the ordinance. He said that if “drug addicts refuse treatment, they will go through withdrawal in jail.”

Facts on Drug Addiction and Hypocrisy

Many Americans and some Fresno residents and business owners, assuming they reflect society’s numbers, might have a substance-use disorder. According to the 2023 U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 48.5 million (16.7%) Americans (aged 12 and older) battled a substance-use disorder in the past year, whereas 10.2% of Americans 12 and older had an alcohol-use disorder in the past year.

About 27.2 million Americans 12 or older (9.7%) reported battling a drug-use disorder in the past year. That same year, 7.5 million (2.7%) Americans 12 and older struggled with both alcohol- and drug-use disorders simultaneously. Moreover, 20.4 million American adults (7.9%) suffered from both a mental health disorder and a substance-use disorder, or co-occurring disorders, in the past year.

Those experiencing homelessness are a tiny fraction of the city’s population, about .003%. Yet, they are being stereotyped as “drug users and addicts” and targeted for arrest. Although many other Fresno residents abuse drugs and alcohol, only the unhoused are being singled out in this new “war on drugs.” Drug and alcohol abuse are a societal problem, not only a problem among the unhoused.

How Many FPD Officers Have Substance-Use Disorders?

High-stress careers, especially those involving life-and-death situations such as the police and other first responders face, are strongly correlated with substance use. The constant pressure and trauma can lead to PTSD if left unaddressed, increasing the risk of self-medication and co-occurring disorders.

Sadly, this is a common struggle, with surveys indicating that nearly 30% of first responders could be battling substance-use disorders. Members of the FPD’s Homeless Assistance Response Team (HART) sometimes act without compassion and understanding toward people who might have a substance-use disorder when they might, in fact, have the same disorder.

According to the most recent Fresno-Madera Continuum of Care “Point in Time” count, approximately 36% of the adult homeless population in Fresno and Madera counties reported experiencing a substance-abuse problem. Homelessness and substance-use disorder have a complex relationship, with substance use both causing and resulting from homelessness.

People experiencing homelessness might use substances to cope with the stress of living on the streets, including the trauma of being homeless, depression and anxiety. They might also use substances to stay warm, suppress hunger or stay awake to avoid victimization. Some unhoused people have said that they use methamphetamine to stay up all night to walk around during the bitter cold, and single women have used substances to stay awake to avoid being raped.

Substance abuse can lead to homelessness and a never-ending cycle of poverty. Substance abuse can make it difficult to perform well at a job, which can lead to job loss, unemployment and eviction. Substance abuse is a health issue. Arresting and forcing treatment is not a solution to overcoming addiction.

Housing First, which would provide supportive services that include substance-abuse treatment, job training and referral and counseling, is a proven, cost-effective solution. Housing Not Handcuffs estimates that chronic homelessness, in part due to its criminalization, costs the public $30,000–$50,000 per person every year.

It’s time to implement permanent, less costly solutions. It’s time to stop criminalizing the marginalized and vulnerable human beings that live among us. It’s also time to end the hypocrisy and recognize the humanity of those who are unfortunate enough to live on the hard streets of Fresno.