SJ's Housing strategy flawed from the get-go, says national expert

Much has been made in local media about the millions upon millions spent on so-called "affordable" housing. And how all those millions don't make a dent in the problem. Michael Shellenberg, author of “San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities,” connects the dots in Reason magazine and concludes that a blinkered insistence on a Housing First strategy is the root of the failure.

We have a "housing first" policy rather than a "shelter first" policy. Under this utopian idea that we can just provide everybody who wants their own apartment in San Francisco or Venice Beach with their own apartment. It's obviously wrong. Just geographically we can't do it. But financially we can't do it, either. And it creates a terrible incentive for people to become homeless.

We need a "treatment first" policy. We need to enforce laws, including misdemeanors, including against public camping, public defecation, and public drug use. Those are cries for help from people. When they break those laws, they should be arrested, brought before a judge, and given the opportunity to have rehab or psychiatric care rather than jail or prisons.

Read the whole thing here.

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