It’s one thing to help the homeless obtain the assistance they need to get off the streets; it’s quite another to enable them to remain homeless. Laws such as these will only attract those who choose this lifestyle to the detriment of those who do not.
Austin plan to allow homeless camps faces backlash
Can you imagine being a taxpayer whose taxes built a park, only to have a homeless encampment take it over? Worse, the homeless who have taken over the park are not even former local residents, but have instead come from other areas to benefit from the local government’s willingness to enable their homeless behavior (which includes, in many cases, drug use). Want proof? Look here and here to start.
Note that some claim the increase in homelessness is due to escalating home prices, but I disagree. California’s rent costs as a percentage of income have dropped while vacancy rates have increased, even as homeless rates in some large California cities have grown at a rate of greater than 40% per year. A more likely cause (although more research is needed) is that California’s willingness to enable the homeless lifestyle attracts homeless from across the country.
Efforts to assist the homeless should focus on helping them overcome the difficulties that led to their homeless condition, not enable their continued homelessness. Those who wish to remain homeless by their own hand should not be encouraged through well-minded but misguided efforts that enable their behavior at public expense.