Homelessness is a real problem in the City of Angels. For all it’s glamour and glitz, Los Angeles is host to a massive homeless population. So the county tried to fix the problem by passing billions of dollars in tax measures.
As is usual with government intervention, it didn’t work.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Los Angeles County’s homeless population is increasing faster than the supply of new housing, even with the addition of thousands of beds in the last two years and millions of dollars beginning to flow in from two ballot measures targeting the crisis, according to a long-awaited report by the region’s homelessness agency.
The report showed that officials two years ago far underestimated how much new housing would be needed when they asked city and county voters to approve the tax measures.
They failed to account for an increase in homeless people as a result of those efforts.
Due to the nature of being homeless, folks in such a predicament have little to keep them in one place. They’re able to move on a whim, especially since “moving” generally only requires them scrounging up enough money for a bus ticket. That means many will use the local library to research communities with strong efforts to help the poor and homeless.
When a city like Los Angeles decides to throw billions at the problem, it’s not surprising that many homeless people would flock to the city where a windfall is taking place. When you subsidize something, you get more of that something. In this case, the homeless.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for helping the homeless. I just think private charity is always better suited to help, in part because private charities can use as much or as little of their funds as they deem necessary.
While L.A. County may have had good intentions, and despite their best efforts, their entire plan fell apart. It’s almost like liberal promises and plans seem to always have unintended consequences.
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