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What Do We Do About the Homeless?

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Homelessness is one of the most vexing public policy problems we face. If you live in a big city, especially on the West Coast, you literally face it every day. And every day, it seems to get worse. Why? And what can we do about it? Christopher Rufo, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has answers.

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Script:

What do we do about the homeless? 

This is one of the most vexing public policy problems we face. If you live in a big city, especially on the West Coast, you literally face it every day. And every day it seems to get worse. Why?

Let’s start with a couple facts: 

First, the word itself is misleading: Homelessness is not primarily a housing problem. It’s a human problem. The primary drivers of homelessness are drug addiction and mental illness. According to data from UCLA’s California Policy Lab, approximately three-quarters of people living in cars, tents, and on the streets suffer from serious mental illness, drug addiction, or both.

Second, despite these conditions, the homeless actually make rational decisions about where they want to live. Not surprisingly, they move to the most permissive environment they can find. Make your city attractive for the homeless and they will beat a path to your doorway. 

The Venice Boulevard underpass on the border of Los Angeles and Culver City brings home this point. It’s one of thousands of concrete structures in Los Angeles County, but there’s a curious detail: the Los Angeles side is full of tents and the Culver City side is empty. Why? Because the two cities have different public policies. Los Angeles has effectively decriminalized public camping and drug consumption while Culver City enforces the law.  

This pattern—that the homeless go where the policy environment is the most permissive—can be seen up and down the West Coast. In San Francisco County, it’s estimated that 30% of the homeless migrated there after becoming homeless somewhere else. In the city of Seattle, that number is 51%. 

The San Francisco Chronicle estimates that hundreds of homeless individuals move to the Bay Area each year because of the “perception that it is a sanctuary for people who are unwilling to participate in programs designed to get them off, and keep them off, a life in the streets.”

At first glance, this would seem to make no sense. Why would an individual with no shelter or stable source of income move to one of the most expensive cities in the country? But in the world of the homeless, it makes perfect sense. That’s because they operate under a different set of incentives than the average citizen.

In a research survey of homeless migrants in Seattle, 15% said they came to access homeless services, 10% came for legal marijuana, and 16% were transients who were “traveling or visiting” when they decided to set up camp. But this dramatically understates the biggest draw of all: the de facto legalization of street camping, drug consumption, and property crime.

As former Seattle public safety advisor Scott Lindsay has shown, the city is now home to a large population of homeless “prolific offenders”—people who commit property crimes to feed their addictions but are rarely held accountable for those crimes by the criminal justice system.

So is ever-increasing homelessness our inevitable future? If our goal is to make life as attractive as possible for the homeless, the answer is yes. If our goal is to actually help the homeless, the answer is no. 

Houston mayor Sylvester Turner is a Democrat, but his approach to homelessness is a world apart from his counterparts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. “It is simply not acceptable for people to live on the streets; it is not good for them, and it is not good for the city,” Turner has said. 

For the complete script as well as FACTS & SOURCES, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/what-do-we-do-about-the-homeless

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38 Comments

  2. The problem of homelessness derives from the illusion that housing and land can be privately owned. I'd say nationalise all land and housing and redistribute them. If we still don't have enough, just build more

  5. The crybabies trying to rationalize homelessness, is hilarious.

    I am an honorably retired police officer with a successful law enforcement career spanning 30 years. I've been up to my eyeballs in this stuff, and I have a doctorate-level understanding of the problem.

    Virtually ALL homeless people, are homeless either by choice, or because they've burned every single bridge in their life. Either way, it's ALWAYS some combination of drug addiction, alcoholism, and/or mental illness.

    The bottom line, is that you can't help people who don't want to be helped, and if you reward failure, you get more failure. That's why Democrat-run cities are over run with homeless camps on their sidewalks. Tents, poop, needles, fires, public unrination, assaults, stabbings, robberies, car break-ins, burglaries- Democrat voters are getting exactly what they asked for.

  6. Not all homeless people are addicts, some homeless people become drug addicts after becoming homeless. Some homeless people have mental illness going in, some have mental health because they’re homeless. If you’re so concerned about homelessness set up a shelter and create a program that helps them get a job and teach the why wasting there life high is maybe a bad idea. Some people are homeless because nobody is hiring them.

  10. Funny how your source for LA not enforcing the law and Culver City enforcing the law against homeless people actually show THE EXACT OPPOSITE. Homeless population in LA is skyrocketting precisely because Culver City officers are defying state court orders for how to handle the homelessness problems in the region, and instead literally telling homeless people to move to the L.A. side of underpasses so they aren't their problem anymore. It is Culver City which is breaking the law here.
    Now either the people making these videos lack first-grade reading comprehension, or everything you guys spew is just ideologically motivated lies. Either way, I'm offended by the American public's intelligence that you guys can have even a modicum of popularity as a source of information. Thanks for citing your sources anyways, so those with critical thinking can easily see through your attempts to deceive and tear apart the country.

  12. Decriminalizing theft under $950? Damn! Those thieves would be go to 5 years jail in my country even if they only steal $10 worth of stuff

    5 years in jail is a short punishment compared to other crimes like murdering people, corruption etc.

  15. Just like we have a military industrial complex, we have a homeless services and drug rehab complex. Homeless people make money for those work for the government and so called nonprofits. These government services and nonprofits have no incentive to reduce the number of homeless. The more homeless the more money they get to deal with the problem. How much money does a nonprofit CEO make? A 6-digit figure. Government services pay scales has leadership making 70,000 plus. Then the numbers have been manipulated. A military member who doesn't buy a home while in the service is considered homeless if he returns to his parents' house. Are they really homeless? That is just one method to keep the number of homeless high for political purposes. Follow the money!

  17. I truly honestly wonder how much if it is caused by “mental illness and drug addiction”. 1 in 5 people in the US take psych meds. You lose your job, your home, etc you lose the ability to have insurance and take those meds. A sharp withdrawal from those meds can be deadly and definitely cause mental health “episodes”. Also, starvation and sleeping on concrete can drive anyone to the edge.

    Then there’s the issue of drug addiction… people who lose access to their meds supplement with hard drugs. Also, a lot of people who wind up homeless start taking drugs to “cope”. Try laying down next to a stroad and going to sleep. Now try it after 2 or 3 percocets and a natty daddy. On the third day no sleep, you’re desperate and will do anything to finally sleep

  18. I truly honestly wonder how much if it is caused by “mental illness and drug addiction”. 1 in 5 people in the US take psych meds. You lose your job, your home, etc you lose the ability to have insurance and take those meds. A sharp withdrawal from those meds can be deadly and definitely cause mental health “episodes”. Also, starvation and sleeping on concrete can drive anyone to the edge.

    Then there’s the issue of drug addiction… people who lose access to their meds supplement with hard drugs. Also, a lot of people who wind up homeless start taking drugs to “cope”. Try laying down next to a stroad and going to sleep. Now try it after 2 or 3 percocets and a natty daddy. On the third day no sleep, you’re desperate and will do anything to finally sleep

  19. As older prisons get shut down, renovate them and place homeless there. Ensure they receive the medical care and counseling they need. If they do not want to receive either, place them in a mental institution (if there are any left)

  26. Solution to reduce shoplifting: Theft is allowed up to 950 dollars right? Re-label and reprice every product . With prices starting from U$ 950,01 ..whoever has. Membership on that shop can claim discount of 950 U$ per item. Then the original price of every product will be more than. 950 U$ and shoplifters will be again prossecuted

  30. The surrounding counties were ILLEGALLY bussing homeless back to LA county to get rid of them in their area.

    PragerU as always is lying about the state of the situation in order to present a policy that is cruel and evil

  33. It depends why they are homeless. The overwhelming majority of the time it's due to them being out of control addicts. If that is the case give them the choices of either jail or rehab. The rest you need to figure out if they just need a job or if they too ill to work. If too ill, get them housing. If they need a job, help them get that. Not rocket science. God bless~