The root cause of “homelessness” is LIBERALISM.
For the moment we will ignore the mentally ill and consider others you may find living on the streets.
First you need to consider the small minority of “homeless” who were at one time called bums, hobos, or vagabonds. These men (mostly) dropped out of society and choose to live on the fringes of society. Most communities controlled the population of bums in their cities by having vagrancy laws and anti-begging laws.
Liberals saw that those laws were stricken from the books.
The big cities are now full of these men that have grown wild without any laws, rules or regulations to control them and liberals in fact protecting them. Aggressive panhandling, threats, physical violence, defecating in public, urinating where they stand... and nothing will be done.
Thee was a time when any city of any size would have an area often referred to as “skid row” where it was possible to get a room for twenty five cents a night.
Liberals looked at the accommodations and declared that they did not meet their standards and regulated them out of business.
The same is true for low cost homes or apartments. They were low cost because for most of us would not want to live in one, yet they did provide a roof, bathrooms, privacy, and a door that could be locked. All the things missing from living on the streets.
Liberals demanded that the “slum lords” fix up the home and or apartments while at the same time making it illegal to raise the rent. With this wise city planning you end up with vacant building, abandoned, no money coming in on the tax roll and people living on the streets.
There was a time a man (or woman) could find day work. Show up work all day and paid in cash. Only illegals can do this today without the government getting involved.
Liberals with all their rules and regulations have made it very difficult for anyone to get and hold a job, and almost impossible for someone who finds themselves on the streets.
Want to solve HOMELESSNESS?
Pick up and hospitalize the mentally ill. Those that can not take care of them selves and are a danger to themselves and other. It would be cheaper in the long run.
Bring back vagrancy laws and the anti-panhandling laws.
Arrest those that are violent, or showing anti-social behavior (such as using the out doors as there personal potty).
And instead of letting them sitting in jail, make them work each day.
Cut government handouts.
Relax some rules and regulations
Allow the invincible hand of Adam Smith make the necessary adjustment between those that want to work and those that need work done (but could not do so because the government demanded they be paid more then the work was worth).
Allow charities deal with families that need help.
Some of this would require overturning some court decisions but if there is a will there is a way.
The bottom line is there are too many people who profit off the misery of the homeless to ever want the problem solved.
That is the reason it has not been solved to date
But Liberals will demand more money be thrown at it instead. It is their only solution.
Besides, these "homeless" will vote almost 100% for more of the same when the Liberals herd them to the polls. This is really a government subsidized Liberal vote mining campaign program.
Thank you for a very well-written post.
These are exactly the points I made to a young grad student friend who was writing a paper on “homelessness” for one of her Economics classes and wanted me to critique it. It was more-more-more tax $$$ and more-more-more government regulation all he way through, which is all they teach. She has little or no idea how an actual economy runs. They don’t teach that in Economics.