“We know what will solve the homelessness crisis. Criminalizing the homeless isn’t it.“
Now, L.A. County officials say Project Roomkey is set to end in September, citing budgetary concerns. The Los Angeles Times reported the initiative never managed to hit its original goal of sheltering 15,000 people. New York City has likewise begun to shut down its hotel-lodging program and has already begun shipping people back to shelters.
This all leads to an important question: Who are these laws and policies actually serving — people who are homeless or people who are housed? The answer on both coasts can be seen pretty clearly in the return to pre-pandemic methods of addressing homelessness. That’s traditionally involved erasure, finding new ways to remove the evidence of homelessness from the city streets.
…politicians at all levels of government have determined voters respond well at the ballot box when their safety and peace of mind is prioritized as more important than their unhoused neighbors’ humanity. And so, across the country in cities that are considered among the most liberal and progressive, Democratic elected officials have spent years trying to appease those voters, promising to crack down on vagrants and unhoused people deemed a blight.
The 99 Percenters 