Crime Didn’t Rise When Homeless Shelters Opened—Some Categories Even Declined
It’s a tale as old as town hall meetings. NIMBYs complain about seeing people living on “their” streets, politicians propose shelter sites, and then NIMBYs complain about that too, suggesting that they should exist, just somewhere…else.
A frequent fear is that adding a new homeless shelter to an area will bring with it an unsavory element, sending local crime rates soaring and exposing neighborhood children to all sorts of dangers from drug use to the realities of poverty in this country.
But those fears are not founded in facts. New data out of Portland show little change in the crime rates of an area before and after a homeless shelter moves in.
NIMBYs Can Relax
This should be reassuring news for those concerned citizens who have opposed the building of shelters in their neighborhoods. As it turns out, they’re not as dangerous as they thought! In fact, the immediate vicinity surrounding two of the city’s shelters actually saw a slight decrease in crime after the shelter moved in…