Much is made of increasing shelter capacity for homeless people across the country. But what if many of them simply don’t want to be sheltered?
It is a conundrum playing out in multiple cities across the country, particularly in West Coast states. Portland, Oregon, for example, has more than 6,600 homeless people, and it does not have the shelter capacity for all of them. But that doesn’t matter because several homeless shelters are under capacity, with empty beds going unclaimed.
Many of these shelters have curfew and sobriety requirements. But such structure is not all that desirable for many homeless people, and those restrictions don’t exist on the streets of Portland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Homelessness in West Coast cities is not a problem of a lack of facilities. If anything, it’s a problem of incentives.
When liberal district attorneys and mayors promise roses and sunshine and all criminals can be reformed if we just believe enough, they also promise to disregard “quality of life” crimes. In effect, they are telling their homeless population that they can live in their tent cities and do what they like. They have no incentive to turn their life around and apply to these shelters, subjecting themselves to sobriety requirements and a curfew. And so many do not.
There is a fine line between being compassionate for the circumstances many homeless people find themselves in and encouraging them to continue their often self-destructive lifestyles. The policies in liberal cities and the attitudes of their elected officials are doing the latter. But hey, maybe another few million dollars for expanded programs will finally solve the problem.
