Less Like Homeless, More Like Camping

by Tony Chavira

The City of Los Angeles has recently begun a pilot program called the "Streets to Homes" Program where they'll turn parking lots into safe zones with bathrooms, showers what who-knows what other amentities for homeless people who live in their cars.  Next American City did a little breakdown for ya:

Los Angeles, a city well-known for its large homeless population—which in 2009 totaled nearly 25,000—recently announced its 2010 Streets to Homes Program. Still in planning stages, this program is setting out to create safe parking areas for Los Angeles’ homeless residents living in cars and RVs. In July, the city identified 250 RV’s and motor vehicles being lived in throughout the city’s District 11, which includes Venice. To help individuals transition from these vehicles into more permanent housing and to get them off of neighborhood streets, the city plans to create safe, overnight parking lots equipped with bathrooms, showers, waste facilities and various social services.

Whether or not this works isn't really an issue.  It'll definitely get people off the street and it'll have the added effect of boosting morale, as it's been shown that the more a government jurisdiction attempts to fight off malevolent market forces, the more people in that jurisdiction will approve of the government's work.  In fact, people tended to have a pretty high level of satisfaction once all was said and done.  Maybe the government's job should be only to fight off the imposing free market system for the highest level of citizen satisfaction and provide bathrooms, showers, and free public amentities all over the place!

Let's drop the pretense already: they should do that.

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