Effectively Reducing Homelessness

      While on my recent vacation I read a book written by four members of the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) entitled NO WAY HOME: The Crisis of Homelessness and How to Fix It with Intelligence and Humanity (Encounter Books).  And the title says it all.  In that regard I hope you agree with me that having such a large homeless population is a blight upon who we are as a country.  All lawful residents in our country should have a place of shelter for themselves and their possessions.  But today California alone has more than 150,000 people who are homeless. Why?  The book (rightly) claims that this is the result of an astounding waste of resources by our state’s government, combined with the callousness of pursuing programs created by politicians that sound good for their own re-election purposes but are ineffective – such as the so-called “Housing First” approach.

      So what does work?  Five things:

1.  We should encourage more private charities to lead the way, since they almost universally understand that housing and shelter programs are most effective when they are tied to public services that help the homeless with problems of mental illnesses, substance abuse, job training and placement, family re-unification and obeying our laws.  These are essential because treatment and personal responsibility are key for recovery. 
2. Local governments have a place in dealing with these issues.  For example, police officers and the judicial system should still be tasked with enforcing local laws regarding camping and public urination, defecation and intoxication.  But this enforcement should not be done in a heavy-handed manner.  Instead the law enforcement officials should connect the homeless people with social workers who are almost always able to achieve more positive results with homeless people.  And the incentives of dismissing many of the offenses if the homeless people cooperate in their programs are effective. 
3. Shelters in locations that are permitted by local governments should be expanded and should include public toilets and other facilities.  This alone will seriously reduce the costs of cleaning up the streets, sidewalks and parks since it is less expensive to have the homeless reside in regulated than unregulated camping sites.   
4. Regulations and the building permits process should be streamlined.  Reducing the costs of construction of affordable housing units will increase the supply (What a concept!), and,
5. A full accounting must be made publicly available regarding all public monies spent on the homeless issues, which is rampantly missing in today’s world.  But transparency would seriously change the way that politicians spend our tax dollars.

      So thank you PRI!

      Quotation for the week from Bob Hope about his early failures in show business: “I would not have had anything to eat if it wasn’t for the stuff the audience threw at me.”