Making Homelessness Policy Effective: A Guide

In late October, San Francisco underwent a remarkable transformation as the city rapidly cleaned up its homeless problem practically overnight. However, this wasn’t done for the benefit of the city’s residents, but as a temporary measure to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping and 20,000 other visitors to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.

After witnessing the deterioration of California under bad policies for decades, a successful entrepreneur who spent nearly his entire life there and started multiple billion-dollar companies in the healthcare, finance, and defense industries, as well as a venture capital firm, decided to move to Texas in 2020. Through his policy group, Cicero Institute, he has been instrumental in implementing policy reforms in Texas that California desperately needs, particularly with regard to homelessness.

The policy reforms, which aim to end the homelessness crisis rather than manage it, have faced aggressive opposition from activists and progressive leaders. This opposition includes claims that the entrepreneur, who has been successful in achieving legislative victories in five states and full policy overhauls in two, is trying to criminalize homeless encampments on a national level.

Moreover, the popular “Housing First” strategy favored by homeless special interest groups has been challenged by the policy group. Instead, they have focused on tying funding to effective metrics, banning dangerous tent encampments, making it easier to civilly commit mentally ill individuals who need treatment, and pulling money from failed “Housing First” programs.

Critics of the reforms have used aggressive tactics to discredit the entrepreneur, targeting his venture capital firm and claiming that he is trying to incarcerate the homeless in private prisons, despite his history of investing millions to reform prisons. However, the focus has remained on fixing the root causes of homelessness and directing policy reforms to a more sustainable and effective approach to ending homelessness.

Despite the challenges and opposition, the entrepreneur and his policy group have found success in pushing policy changes in states like Texas. The focus is on directing incentives away from the current failing strategy prioritizing free housing for the homeless and instead addressing the underlying causes to effectively end homelessness.

The failure of such initiatives like the “Housing First” strategy has been evident in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, which have seen an increase in homelessness and failed to address the issue effectively. The policy group has highlighted the flawed approach to homelessness, including the implications of drug addiction, criminal violence, and mental illness, resulting in prioritizing the most troubled individuals, while neglecting those who are non-violent and attempting to find work.

Despite the challenges and opposition from activist groups, the policy group remains committed to enacting effective policy reforms to address the homelessness crisis in a sustainable and meaningful way.



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