Did they actually REDUCE homelessness? Because it sounds like they just drove it deeper into hiding, where they will be even more susceptible to abuse, exploitation, crime, etc.

Florida enacted HB 1365, which prohibits counties and cities from allowing people to regularly camp or sleep on public property. It even allows businesses to sue the government for lack of enforcement.

New York is basically the opposite. Demanding shelter for eligible residents. Illinois is also progressively approaching homelessness.

Hawaii is a mixed bag. So is California.

At least in my community in CA, we expanded safe housing for the unhoused by opening several hundred mini apartments in a converted motel, and a new five story building, in association with a non-profit, Mercy House. The two sites have social services on site, with career counseling available, social services, etc. I guess it's a modified "housing first" model that seems to be working.

Hopefully it's more from actual improvements than recategorizing how people are counted. "He's got a tent. Not homeless."

Did they fix the root cause or just shift them somewhere else?

Headline: "California reports one of the largest drops in homelessness"

Me: 😃

Article: "...thanks to new model ordinance to crackdown on homeless encampments"

Me: 🙁

So basically, they're just sweeping homeless people into the prison system and using a faulty metric to frame this as a good thing...

We are deporting people left and right