Blazingcatfur

The New Yorker sees a homelessness program rife with drugs and crime as hugely successful.

Last week’s New Yorker featured a 15,000–word exploration of what happens when government gives housing to the homeless. The article profiled a Brooklyn supportive-housing program that provides formerly homeless people with private apartments run in accordance with Housing First principles. Building residents face no behavioral expectations.

Author Jennifer Egan portrays a chaotic scene, overrun with addiction, premature mortality, and crime. Nonetheless, Egan (a novelist by trade) argues that this program succeeds in offering residents “a new lease on life” and should be replicated everywhere homelessness is found. Readers may be reminded of the third chapter of Michael Shellenberger’s book San Fransicko: “The Experiment Was a Success but the Patients Died.”

There is a simple solution to the housing crisis: Voters in municipalities across Canada could elect mayors and councils dedicated to stripping away zoning restrictions, while simplifying and lowering the costs of permissions and permits.

Unfortunately, voters in municipal elections tend to be homeowners who benefit from escalating prices and who want to preserve their neighbourhoods. Councils reflect their will.