Homelessness
2024's Unprecedented Rise in Homelessness Shows the Tension Between Free Shelter and Free Movement
Milton Friedman once observed that you can't have open immigration and a welfare state. He was mostly right.
Unprecedented Rise in Homelessness
The latest federal homelessness survey finds an 18 percent annual rise in the number of people living without permanent shelter.
Housing Policy 2024: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Cities and states are passing lots of productive reforms, local courts are increasingly striking them down, and local governments continue their harassment of homeless shelters.
How Exclusionary Zoning Increases Homelessness
A new paper by housing expert Salim Furth shows it does so by making it harder for marginal people to find housing with relatives and friends.
Pastor Criminally Charged With Zoning Violations Gets His Day in Court
Plus: New York City moves forward on zoning reforms, Utah city moves backward on granny flats, and D.C. considers a ban on landlords' pit bull bans.
FDA Policy Worsens Homelessness by Limiting Access to Antipsychotics
Clozapine is the only drug approved for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. So why does the FDA make it so hard to prescribe?
Tribal Sovereignty Saves a Homeless Shelter (For Now)
The Yakama Nation has won a temporary restraining order preventing the City of Toppenish, Washington, from closing its new cold weather shelter.
Big City, Little Reforms
The final version of New York's "City of Yes" reforms makes modest liberalizing changes to the city's zoning code.
California Voters Opt for Orderly Urbanism on Election Day
Golden State voters decisively rejected progressive approaches to crime and housing.
Kamala's California Problem
As skyrocketing costs and mass exoduses define the Golden State, Democrats face a crucial reckoning.
No Place To Go
Despite homelessness being on the rise, local governments keep cracking down on efforts to shelter those without permanent housing.
Zoning Police and NIMBYs Want To Keep People Homeless
Vineyard owners face $120,000 in fines for letting an employee and his family live on their 60-acre property without a permit.
Gorsuch Apes NIMBY Government Lies in Supreme Court's Grants Pass Decision
Plus: A disappointing first round of "Baby YIMBY" grant awards, President Joe Biden endorses rent control, and House Republicans propose cutting housing spending.
Supreme Court Rules That Punishing the Homeless for Sleeping Outside Isn't 'Cruel and Unusual'
Homeless advocates say the court's decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson gives local governments a blank check to "to arrest or fine those with no choice but to sleep outdoors."
Reason Wins 7 Southern California Journalism Awards
First-place finishes include an investigative piece on egregious misconduct in federal prison, a documentary on homelessness, best magazine columnist, and more.
Does Miami Have the Answer to Homelessness?
There may not be a perfect solution to ending homelessness, but there are some clear principles to reduce the friction for those working to do so.
Mike Solana: Can San Francisco Be Saved?
Pirate Wires Editor in Chief Mike Solana discusses the lessons of San Francisco's politics, his vision for the future, and his critiques of libertarianism.
The Housing Policy Implications of Taylor Swift
Plus: An interview with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis about the state's blockbuster year for housing reform.
Zoning Regulations Empower Control Freaks—and Bigots
The Institute for Justice has launched a project to reform land use regulation.
Reason Is a Finalist for 14 Southern California Journalism Awards
Nominated stories include journalism on messy nutrition research, pickleball, government theft, homelessness, and more.
Ohio Pastor Criminally Charged for Letting People Sleep In Church. Again.
Plus: California's landmark law ending single-family-only zoning is struck down, Austin, Texas, moves forward with minimum lot size reform, and the pro-natalist case for pedestrian infrastructure.
Costly Complexity
The needless complexity of affordable housing programs are hurting people they're supposed to help.
Combat Homelessness by Ending Exclusionary Zoning
The Eighth Amendment provides little, if any, protection for the homeless. But courts can help them by striking down exclusionary zoning, which is the major cause of housing shortages that lead to homelessness.
Chicago Mayor's Solution to Homelessness Fails to Convince Voters
Instead of a hefty real estate tax hike, voters want more logical, long-term solutions to a genuine crisis.
Licenses and Dead Bodies
Plus: Evil tech bros want to teach kids math, Utah and Texas tackle DEI, Trump loves Sinéad, and more...
Squatters Invaded His Mom's House—so He Fought Back
Thanks to "squatters' rights" laws, evicting a squatter can be so expensive and cumbersome that some people simply walk away from their homes.
The Feds Give States Millions To Fix Homelessness, but States Are Sending It Back
Bureaucratic ineptitude leads to waste—and more people on the streets.
Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Enforcement of Houston Ordinance Against Feeding the Homeless
The judge found that Food Not Bombs' activity was clearly expressive conduct under the First Amendment.
Houston Faces First Amendment Lawsuit for Cracking Down on Feeding the Homeless
Food Not Bombs activists argue that feeding the needy is core political speech, and that they don't need the city's permission to do it.
Princeton's Matthew Desmond Gets Everything Wrong About Poverty's Root Causes
Desmond's analysis never goes deeper than his facile assertion that "poverty persists because some wish and will it to."
Zoning Bans the Good Samaritan
Plus: Beverly Hills homeowners can't build new pools until their city allows new housing, a ballot initiative would legalize California's newest city, and NIMBYs sue to overturn zoning reform (again).
'Someone Is Going To Die Today': Did Daniel Penny Act in Self-Defense?
"I have encountered many things," one witness told the grand jury, "but nothing that put fear into me like that."
Homeless Encampments Cost These Cities Tens of Thousands of Dollars Per Tent
L.A., Portland, and other cities are spending millions to house homeless people in outdoor "safe sleeping" sites.
Welfare Is Great—for the Welfare Bureaucrats
The clients get a confusing maze and a lot of incentives to stay on welfare.
12 Increasingly Off-the-Wall Housing Reforms
American cities and states passed a lot of good, incremental housing reforms in 2023. In 2024, we'd benefit from trying out some long shot ideas.
California Officials Force Elderly Couple To Dismantle Home, Citing Blocked Ocean Views
Plus: Austin's newly passed zoning reforms could be in legal jeopardy, HUD releases its latest census of the homeless population, and a little-discussed Florida reform is spurring a wave of home construction.
San Francisco's APEC Cleanup Hasn't 'Fixed' Its Homelessness Problem
No amount of encampment sweeps and pressure-washing sidewalks is going to solve the problem of thousands of people living on the streets.
L.A. Wants To Commandeer Vacant Hotel Rooms as Homeless Housing
Los Angeles voters will decide in March whether to force hotels to report empty rooms to the city and accept vouchers from homeless people.
At California GOP Convention, Donald Trump Promises To 'Liberate' Communist California
With a second term, the former president promised to end California's water shortage, clear homeless encampments, and conduct the biggest deportation operation in American history.
Banning Criminal Background Checks Will Lead To More Housing Discrimination, Not Less
The best reforms would correct the real problems of overcriminalization and overincarceration, as well as removing all artificial barriers to building more homes.
Ending Poverty Requires Serious Policy, Not Political Platitudes
Another exercise in nonsense by state lawmakers in California.
Homeless Veteran Sues Police After Service Dog Tased During Panhandling Arrest
Joshua Rohrer not only seeks damages for his violent arrest but also wants the city's anti-panhandling ordinance overturned on First Amendment grounds.
Declaring a 'Right' to Housing Won't Solve Homelessness
Instead, try making it easier to build more housing!
Zoning Police Criminalize Kindness in Oregon
A town clamps down on distributing clothes, personal care items, and food to the homeless.
