“The purpose of a system is what it does,” British theorist Stafford Beer once observed. For decades, federal and state governments poured tens of billions of dollars into programs to reduce homelessness, providing free housing and treatment later. Thousands of jobs were created at nonprofit organizations in cities across the country, and millions of dollars in campaign donations were recycled back to the Democratic Party, but instead of falling, the homeless population rose to a record high of 771,480 last year.

The Supreme Court took the first step in restoring sanity to streets and parks last year when it overturned a 9th Circuit decision holding that homeless people had an Eighth Amendment right to vagrancy. Under Grants Pass v. Johnson, local governments may now arrest people who camp in public spaces without authorization. More than 100 cities have taken the resulting opportunity to crack down on homeless encampments, which are usually drug markets that befoul their communities with crime, disease, and stench.