Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There

by Rutger Bregman

Lloyd Pendleton, the director of Utah’s Homeless Task Force, had his lightbulb moment in the early 2000s. Homelessness in the state was out of control, with thousands of people sleeping under bridges, in parks, and on the streets of Utah’s cities. Police and social services had their hands full, and Pendleton was fed up. He also had a plan. In 2005, Utah launched its war on homelessness not, as so often, with Tasers and pepper spray, but by attacking the problem at the root. The goal? To get all the state’s homeless off the streets. The strategy? Free apartments. Pendleton started with the seventeen most abject street sleepers he could find. Two years later, after they all had a place to live, he progressively expanded the program. Criminal records, hopeless addictions, towering debts – none of it mattered. In Utah, having a roof over your head became a right.