But if San Francisco had not demolished much of its lowest-priced housing over the past fifty years, the volume of people now living on sidewalks would not be as large.
https://mises.org/wire/homelessness-and-problem-public-space
Last month, 82 percent of Denver voters voted down Initiative 300, which would have overturned the city ban on camping in public spaces.
In other words, Initiative 300 sought to make it legal for homeless people to live in public parks, medians, greenbelts, and similar locations. Faced with the prospect of tent cities along every bike path and softball field, a lopsided majority of voters turned down the measure. Moreover, many voters likely feared that Denver would become more like San Francisco, which has now become notorious for streets lined by tent cities of homeless.
Many voters who opposed the initiative recognized that part of the problem of homelessness in public space is due to an unwillingness on the part of public officials to manage the use of public space. Ultimately, however, the problem of public-space homelessness is two pronged: as we shall see, it is produced by both a lack of housing supply and government mismanagement of public space… Read the rest of this entry »
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