How to Solve the Homeless Problem, Once and for All
This article makes the same tired argument that <i>homeless people are all junkies and crazies</i> which gets used to blame the people on the street.<p>It does so in spite of opening with this:<p><i>California saw its homeless population rise by 31 percent even as the number of homeless declined 18 percent in the rest of the United States between 2010 and 2020.</i><p>We know that homeless people travel, that some organizations have a <i>policy</i> of solving their local homeless problem by passing out bus tickets and that some states have actively sought to dump their homeless on California.<p>California has a lot of problems, like terrible housing policies, that contribute to the problem. But I believe California has become the dumping ground for America&#x27;s homeless and it&#x27;s problematic to act like California&#x27;s numbers have gone up because California is behaving badly rather than acknowledge that California&#x27;s numbers have gone up precisely because homelessness is down elsewhere: California is where some of those people ended up.<p>And California has unsheltered homeless because the temperate, dry weather in large parts of the state make it tolerable to sleep outside most of the time and it&#x27;s a better option than the shelter system for a long list of reasons, from the concentration of poverty to exposure to disease to the prison-like conditions.<p>I think this article is garbage. It contradicts everything I understand about the topic.<p>I spent nearly six years homeless. I&#x27;ve had a college class on the topic. I still write about it.<p>I think I&#x27;m more informed than average about such things.