INCENTIVES MATTER: ‘Where did they go?’ San Diego now enforcing homeless camping ban. A friend comments:

Key takeaways here:
1. The homeless respond to policy and incentives like anyone else. The mere announcement of a future camping ban (plus some enforcement of other existing rules) rapidly cleared out major problem areas.

2. The provision of shelter or housing is neither necessary nor sufficient to accomplish these clear-outs. Of the people asked to leave Balboa Park on the first day of enforcement (issuance of warnings), none accepted offers of shelter.

3. The NGOs that have colonized the homeless problem have neither the incentive nor the knowledge to solve it. The head of one shelter was confused by the magical disappearance of his potential clients. “Where dId they go?”

“He was especially surprised by how empty Commercial Street was, and said outreach teams were still surveying the city. They’re scramblin’ around to figure out where everybody went.’ Commercial Street had once been so clogged that tents and tarps spilled onto the road. Yet at one point, the only movement came from a pair of officers crossing the road.”

We get urban decay because we tolerate it. And as for the nonprofits/NGOs, homelessness is far too lucrative a problem to solve.