The Feds Give States Millions To Fix Homelessness, but States Are Sending It Back
Bureaucratic ineptitude leads to waste—and more people on the streets.
Homelessness
Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Enforcement of Houston Ordinance Against Feeding the Homeless
The judge found that Food Not Bombs' activity was clearly expressive conduct under the First Amendment.
Houston Faces First Amendment Lawsuit for Cracking Down on Feeding the Homeless
Food Not Bombs activists argue that feeding the needy is core political speech, and that they don't need the city's permission to do it.
Princeton's Matthew Desmond Gets Everything Wrong About Poverty's Root Causes
Desmond's analysis never goes deeper than his facile assertion that "poverty persists because some wish and will it to."
Zoning Bans the Good Samaritan
Plus: Beverly Hills homeowners can't build new pools until their city allows new housing, a ballot initiative would legalize California's newest city, and NIMBYs sue to overturn zoning reform (again).
'Someone Is Going To Die Today': Did Daniel Penny Act in Self-Defense?
"I have encountered many things," one witness told the grand jury, "but nothing that put fear into me like that."
Homeless Encampments Cost These Cities Tens of Thousands of Dollars Per Tent
L.A., Portland, and other cities are spending millions to house homeless people in outdoor "safe sleeping" sites.
Welfare Is Great—for the Welfare Bureaucrats
The clients get a confusing maze and a lot of incentives to stay on welfare.
12 Increasingly Off-the-Wall Housing Reforms
American cities and states passed a lot of good, incremental housing reforms in 2023. In 2024, we'd benefit from trying out some long shot ideas.
California Officials Force Elderly Couple To Dismantle Home, Citing Blocked Ocean Views
Plus: Austin's newly passed zoning reforms could be in legal jeopardy, HUD releases its latest census of the homeless population, and a little-discussed Florida reform is spurring a wave of home construction.
San Francisco's APEC Cleanup Hasn't 'Fixed' Its Homelessness Problem
No amount of encampment sweeps and pressure-washing sidewalks is going to solve the problem of thousands of people living on the streets.
L.A. Wants To Commandeer Vacant Hotel Rooms as Homeless Housing
Los Angeles voters will decide in March whether to force hotels to report empty rooms to the city and accept vouchers from homeless people.
At California GOP Convention, Donald Trump Promises To 'Liberate' Communist California
With a second term, the former president promised to end California's water shortage, clear homeless encampments, and conduct the biggest deportation operation in American history.
Banning Criminal Background Checks Will Lead To More Housing Discrimination, Not Less
The best reforms would correct the real problems of overcriminalization and overincarceration, as well as removing all artificial barriers to building more homes.
Ending Poverty Requires Serious Policy, Not Political Platitudes
Another exercise in nonsense by state lawmakers in California.
Homeless Veteran Sues Police After Service Dog Tased During Panhandling Arrest
Joshua Rohrer not only seeks damages for his violent arrest but also wants the city's anti-panhandling ordinance overturned on First Amendment grounds.
Declaring a 'Right' to Housing Won't Solve Homelessness
Instead, try making it easier to build more housing!
Zoning Police Criminalize Kindness in Oregon
A town clamps down on distributing clothes, personal care items, and food to the homeless.
Fearmongering Won't Solve Climate Change
Global warming is an issue. But there are other pressing problems that deserve the world's attention.
City Council Indictment Shows How L.A.'s Overregulated Housing Market Breeds Corruption
City Councilmember Curren Price is indicted for steering favors to affordable housing developers who were bribing his wife.
Homelessness Isn't an Unfixable Problem
Start by looking at the government policies that have made it worse.
City Threatens Christian Group With Fines, Prosecution for Giving the Homeless Muffins, Coffee
The Department of Justice is now intervening on behalf of the Orange County, California, group's right to distribute food at its resource center in Santa Ana.
Jordan Neely Wasn't Killed by the System
Opposing sides of the debate around a New York City subway homicide have found unlikely common ground.
San Francisco's Got Problems. There's No Need To Exaggerate Them for Political Reasons.
If you don't like San Francisco, that's fine, but don't tell tall tales about it.
Lawsuit: Police Officer Broke a 61-Year-Old Woman's Leg, Then Bragged He 'Man-Dropped' Her
Before assaulting her, the cops taunted her for being homeless, she claims.
Trump Advocates Mass Incarceration, 'Tent Cities' To Address Homelessness
The plan is unlikely to work, and the government already has a sordid recent history of funneling people into tent cities anyway.
Why Homelessness Is Worse in California Than in Texas
Today, the Lone Star state counts 90 homeless people per every 100,000 residents. In California, the problem is almost five times as bad.
Lawsuit Claims Portland Police Shot Unarmed Homeless Man, Then Ate Pizza While His Body Lay on the Ground
Robert Delgado's family is now seeking damages.
Debate: Mentally Ill Homeless People Must Be Locked Up for Public Safety
Have we forgotten the era of mass institutionalization?
Disability Rights Group Challenges California Law That Forces the Mentally Ill Into Court-Ordered Treatment
"On its face, the CARE Act violates essential constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection while needlessly burdening fundamental rights to privacy, autonomy and liberty," the petition states.
Police Harassed a Man Holding a 'God Bless the Homeless Vets' Sign. He's Suing.
"My intention is to ensure that all Americans from the wealthiest millionaire to the poorest homeless person can exercise these rights without fear of consequence from our government," said Jeff Gray.
They Fell Behind on Their Property Taxes. So the Government Sold Their Homes—and Kept the Profits.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear 94-year-old Geraldine Tyler's case challenging home equity theft.
Redding, California, Uses Public Health Red Tape to Ban Sharing Food with Homeless
Is it good public health policy to deny charity to people experiencing homelessness?
Zoning Police Continue To Find New Ways To Punish the Poor
Multiple factors contribute to housing shortages, but zoning constraints are mostly to blame.
New HUD Report Shows Steady Pandemic-Era Increase in Unsheltered Homeless Population
The overall homeless population stayed basically flat from 2020 to 2022. But the number of people sleeping on the streets increased 3.4 percent.
Politics Is Getting in the Way of What Makes Cities Great
Healthy cities are a boon not just for those who live in them, but for our entire society.
What Twitter's Suppression of the Hunter Biden Laptop Story Tells Us About the Media
Plus: The editors consider a listener question on the involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill.
Eric Adams' Plan To Involuntarily Hospitalize Mentally Ill Homeless People Will Face Legal Challenges
Civil liberties groups say Adams' plan violates constitutional rights protecting people with mental illness from being confined against their will simply for existing.
Federal Court Upholds Cruel, Unconstitutional St. Louis Ban on Sharing Food with Homeless
The ordinance governing how food can be shared is designed to make it next to impossible to share food.
This 78-Year-Old Woman Was Arrested for Feeding the Poor
Norma Thornton of Bullhead City, Arizona, is suing for the right to help people in need.
Decriminalizing Jaywalking in California Will Help Reduce Police Harassment
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill in September that will chip away at a policy that has long been criticized as enabling racially-motivated policing.
California A.G. Says Anaheim NIMBYs Can't Block Women's Group Home
State officials have been warning Anaheim for decades that their regulations on transitional housing were illegal. The city's rejection of nonprofit Grandma's House of Hope's group home was the last straw.
California's 'CARE Court' Won't Help the Homeless
It will just give the state more power to control those deemed mentally ill.
Tiny Homes for Las Vegas Homeless Demolished Over Code Violations
Plus: Trump sues over Mar-a-Lago raid, why people vote to "dismantle democracy," how Ireland ruined its rental market, and more...