Why do we allow homeless encampments in towns?

Rights, realities, and urban decay

Finding the correct solution to a problem can be challenging, but identifying a disastrously wrong one is often pretty easy..

In the case of homelessness, allowing tent encampments in the middle of towns is an egregiously wrong one. Outside of napalm, is there any faster way to ruin a city?

While city leaders bear most responsibility, the court system has made their jobs harder by legally barring them from cleaning up homeless encampments. The Supreme Court may reverse this.

City leaders bear most of the blame for their failed policies, of course. Their approaches too often ignored human psychology, creating urban nightmares in the world’s richest economy. The courts have made it worse.

Through a series of legal rulings, notably one against Grants Pass, Oregon, the courts have partially handcuffed city officials,, preventing them from taking action to clear these encampments. The Supreme Court's decision to review this could be a game-changer.

The 2018 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court, often criticized for its left-leaning interpretations, is a case in point. This decision twisted the protections of the Eighth Amendment, declaring the prohibition of sleeping on public property as "cruel and unusual punishment" unless adequate, accessible, and free housing options were available. This ruling even stipulated that such housing options be within city limits, disqualifying nearby shelters if they happened to be just across a border.

Governing, inherently, is about balancing competing rights and interests. But under the banner of compassion, this ruling has hurt all sides. It led to a scenario where the homeless live in conditions that can only be described as subhuman, while at the same time destroying businesses and the quality of life for everyone else.

Politics, as always, plays a part. High-profile figures like California's Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed have finally found themselves on the right side, calling for a reversal of the Ninth Circuit ruling. 

Of course, this finally gave them an opportunity to point fingers elsewhere. Given the complete absence of conservatives running major cities, they can now blame someone else besides themselves. We should welcome their turnaround, but neither forget nor absolve them of their horrible policies that brought us here.

These court fights are sponsored by homeless activists, who also share in blame for allowing this ongoing misery on our city streets. They’re part of a homeless industrial complex that has, under the banner of compassion, helped destroy thousands of lives. It’s as if the firefighter lobby did their best to make homes more flammable.

This month, the Supreme Court announced its decision to review the Grants Pass case, a long-overdue move. Their upcoming decision, expected later this year, could bring some much-needed common sense to the issue.

– Ken