You’re watching Joe Biden leave office, and it’s a long goodbye. He’s been on vacation quite a bit since the election, but his administration is busy attempting to salvage some scraps from his legacy. One legacy Biden leaves behind, that The Wall Street Journal’s editors call “regrettable,” is rising homelessness, especially in states run by progressive politicians. The Biden administration points to “systemic racism” and “lack of affordable housing” as the causes, but the editors explain, the real reasons are mostly Biden open border policies allowing migrants in, and rampant drug use and mental health problems going unaddresssed. They write:
One culprit is a surge in migration. New York City told HUD that migrant households accounted for nearly 88% of its increase in homeless living in shelters this year. Chicago reported “that an influx of new arrivals,” mostly migrants bused and flown from other states, “accounted for more than 13,600 people in emergency shelters.”
While migrants have also flooded into Florida and Texas, these states seem to have absorbed them far better. Since 2019 the number of homeless has soared in Illinois (15,633), California (35,806) and New York (65,928), versus Texas (2,139) and Florida (3,034). Higher housing costs and unemployment in progressive states make it more difficult for migrants to support themselves.
Restrictive zoning and environmental regulations reduce housing supply and drive up prices. Compare the number of new housing permits issued last year in Texas (232,373) and Florida (193,788), versus California (117,760), New York (48,807) and Illinois (16,863).
New York City’s “right to shelter” policy also encourages migrants to take advantage of government-supported housing, including hotels in midtown Manhattan. But most migrants who can’t find work and housing eventually move to places where they can.
Most of the increase in what HUD calls “chronic homelessness” owes to mental illness and drug abuse, which the report fails to mention, if you can believe it. This is obvious to anyone who walks past an urban homeless encampment, or for that matter any street in certain neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
Progressives ignore such clear social ills and instead call for more spending on low-income housing. But such “housing first” policies have failed, as demonstrated by the rising number of homeless in progressive states.
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