SF case study: Drug-lenient policies attract homeless expats en masse, ad infinitum

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As SF builds more subsidized housing, its sector of homeless residents only gets larger and harder to manage. In WSJ, Manhattan Institute research director Judge Glock elucidates the disconnect: Almost 1/3 of SF's homeless residents moved there after losing their housing, many allured by the easy access to (and hands-off prosecuting approach to) illicit substances.

Many advocates claim that providing a welcoming environment for camping and drugs doesn’t attract the homeless, and that only more subsidized housing can solve homelessness. San Francisco shows the folly of those arguments (“Why San Francisco Is a Homeless Mecca,” Review & Outlook, Aug. 7). According to the city’s own statistics, almost 30% of the homeless moved there after they had already lost housing. Another 17% lived in the city for less than a year before becoming homeless. As Mayor London Breed admits, one reason people are coming is easy access to drugs.

The claim that enough subsidized housing will solve the homelessness problem is belied by San Francisco’s efforts. In the past 15 years, the city has created more than 7,000 permanent housing units, enough to house every homeless person at the beginning of the period, but the problem has grown worse. That 11% of the homeless population was already living in subsidized or government housing before becoming homeless—again, most likely—shows that more housing is insufficient to stop the crisis.

Although the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has put limits on what cities can do to remove encampments, some cities under its jurisdiction, such as Las Vegas, have managed to expand existing laws against street camping and provide affordable shelter alternatives. Unless San Francisco is willing to do the same, it will continue to be a mecca for the homeless.

This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Read the whole thing here.

Related:

• SF case study: Rhetoric aside, “criminalizing drug use” likely a strategic part of reducing overdoses

• SCC's fatal drug overdoses reach record high in 2022

• Oakland's lax drug and encampment laws propagated dystopian “land of milk and fentanyl”?

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