What Do We Do About the Homeless?
Homelessness is among the most vexing public policy problems we face. If you live in a huge city, specifically on the West Coast, you literally face it every day. And every day, it appears to worsen. Why? And what can we do about it? Christopher Rufo, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has responses.
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Script:.
What do we do about the homeless?.
This is one of the most vexing public policy problems we deal with. If you live in a big city, particularly on the West Coast, you literally face it every day.
Let’s begin with a couple truths:.
The main chauffeurs of homelessness are drug addiction and psychological health problem. According to data from UCLA’s California Policy Lab, roughly three-quarters of people living in automobiles, tents, and on the streets suffer from severe psychological disease, drug dependency, or both.
Second, in spite of these conditions, the homeless really make logical choices about where they want to live. Not remarkably, they move to the most permissive environment they can find. Make your city appealing for the homeless and they will beat a path to your entrance..
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 complete of tents and the Culver City side is empty.
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 approximated 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 approximates that numerous homeless people transfer to the Bay Area each year because of the “understanding that it is a sanctuary for people who hesitate to participate in programs developed to get them off, and keep them off, a life in the streets.”.
Initially glance, this would seem to make no sense. Why would an individual without any shelter or steady source of income relocate to among the most pricey cities in the country? However in the world of the homeless, it makes ideal sense. That’s since they operate under a various set of incentives than the typical citizen.
In a research study of homeless migrants in Seattle, 15% stated they pertained to gain access to homeless services, 10% came for legal marijuana, and 16% were transients who were “taking a trip or going to” when they chose to establish camp. But this drastically downplays the most significant draw of all: the de facto legalization of street outdoor camping, drug usage, and property crime.
As former Seattle public security advisor Scott Lindsay has revealed, the city is now home to a large population of homeless “prolific transgressors”– individuals who dedicate residential or commercial property criminal offenses to feed their addictions but are rarely held liable for those crimes by the criminal justice system.
So is ever-increasing homelessness our inescapable future? If our objective is to make life as attractive as possible for the homeless, the response is yes. If our objective is to really assist the homeless, the response is no..
Houston mayor Sylvester Turner is a Democrat, however his technique to homelessness is a world apart from his counterparts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. “It is simply not appropriate for people to live on the streets; it is bad for them, and it is bad for the city,” Turner has said..
For the total script in addition to FACTS & SOURCES, see https://www.prageru.com/video/what-do-we-do-about-the-homeless.
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Second, in spite of these conditions, the homeless really make rational decisions about where they want to live. This pattern– that the homeless go where the policy environment is the most liberal– can be seen up and down the West Coast. In San Francisco County, it’s approximated that 30% of the homeless migrated there after becoming homeless someplace else. In the world of the homeless, it makes best sense. If our objective is to make life as appealing as possible for the homeless, the response is yes.
