Tents belonging to homeless people are seen in downtown Pittsburgh in November 2023.
Imagine you’re presented with two options as an investor. Option one: Spend $50,000 annually to trap a homeless person in a cycle of incarceration, poverty and repeated release into the streets. Option two: Spend $15,000 annually to lift someone out of homelessness, reduce crime, lower emergency service costs and restore human dignity. Which would you choose?
The 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Johnson v. City of Grants Pass made it easier for municipalities to criminalize homelessness by allowing ordinances that penalize public camping, even when no shelter beds are available. Framed as a public safety solution, these policies offer the appearance of governmental action to solve the homelessness problem. In reality, however, criminalizing homelessness exacerbates it at taxpayer expense…