San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities

by Michael Shellenberger

Americans not suffering from serious mental illness should have a right to shelter, not to a studio apartment, much less one in one of the most expensive downtown real estate markets in the world. Shelters should be safe, clean, and humane. But they also must be low-cost, basic, and not so nice as to serve as an incentive to homelessness. And better housing should be earned, not given away unconditionally.

Christopher Jencks, The Homeless (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994); Richard W. White Jr., Rude Awakenings: What the Homeless Crisis Tells Us (Lanham, MD: Institute for Contemporary Studies Press, 1992); Alice S. Baum and Donald W. Burnes, A Nation in Denial: The Truth About Homelessness (Avalon, 1993).