Homelessness
Blog
Mayor Daniel Lurie slashes red tape in San Francisco
Mayor Daniel Lurie slashes red tape in San Francisco By Sal Rodriguez | September 15, 2025 Since taking office in January, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has made streamlining his city’s notoriously challenging regulatory processes a top priority. In February, Lurie established PermitSF, a multi-agency effort tasked with speeding up ...
Blog
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
L.A. homeless counts fall before World Cup, Olympics
According to the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count from July, “For the second straight year, homelessness is down across Los Angeles County, falling 4% to 72,308. Homelessness also declined in the city of Los Angeles, falling by 3.4% to 43,699.” That contrasts with a 3% increase in California in ...
Blog
Learn about the latest Newsom plan on homelessness
Fixing Years Of Missteps On Homelessness
“There’s nothing compassionate about letting people die on the streets,” Newson said announcing the model ordinance. The plan would make it unlawful to set up camps “for the purpose of sleeping, lying, or sheltering one or more persons for more than three consecutive days or nights in the same location.” ...
Blog
Getting it all wrong about the other city by the bay
To be charitable, miners brave enough to go digging can discover occasional nuggets of value in Madrigal’s ponderous, and entirely predictable, jeremiad. For example: Oakland had its own version of the urban-renewal thuggery that would eventually lead to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In ...
Blog
Sanctuary State for The Homeless
Not all of California’s homelessness problems can be blamed on poor public policy. But much of it is due to statutes and ordinances that have incentivized vagrancy. This should not be in dispute and should inform policymaking today and in the future. But apparently some don’t see it that way. ...
California
Read the latest about California's ineffective government homelessness programs
A Website About Being Transparent That Isn’t
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has launched a new initiative – accountability.ca.gov – which it characterizes as “bring(ing) together thousands of locally reported data points to provide a clear picture of local communities’ work on California’s most pressing issues, including homelessness.” In case your stomach is full after eating that word ...
Blog
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Six ways Trump administration will change urban policy
The following policy possibilities have been derived largely from Trump’s statements. Housing. “We’re going to open up tracks of federal land for housing construction,” the real estate magnate announced on Aug. 15 at a news conference. “We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.” He ...
Blog
Grants Pass and Prop 36 Will Help Policymakers Control California’s Homeless Crisis
Between 2007 and 2014, homelessness declined faster in California than the rest of the country – an 18 percent total decline in California compared to a 9 percent total decline in the rest of the country. And then something happened in 2014. While the number of homeless in California began ...
Blog
ELECTION 2024 – California’s ballot measures could worsen homelessness
ELECTION 2024 California’s ballot measures could worsen homelessness John Seiler | October 31, 2024 On Nov. 5, voters in California cities can make the housing and homeless crises better – or worse. Alas, most likely the latter. They likely will pass the vast majority of local sales tax increases, school ...
Blog
‘An idea so bad, Seattle hasn’t done it’
“Homelessness isn’t an identity,” said a full-page ad in the Aug. 25 issue of the Spokane’s Spokesman-Review newspaper. “Tell the City Council to VOTE NO on making their hardship a protected class.” The ad, sponsored by the Washington Business Properties Association, included contact info for the Spokane City Council, which ...
Mayor Daniel Lurie slashes red tape in San Francisco
Mayor Daniel Lurie slashes red tape in San Francisco By Sal Rodriguez | September 15, 2025 Since taking office in January, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has made streamlining his city’s notoriously challenging regulatory processes a top priority. In February, Lurie established PermitSF, a multi-agency effort tasked with speeding up ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
L.A. homeless counts fall before World Cup, Olympics
According to the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count from July, “For the second straight year, homelessness is down across Los Angeles County, falling 4% to 72,308. Homelessness also declined in the city of Los Angeles, falling by 3.4% to 43,699.” That contrasts with a 3% increase in California in ...
Learn about the latest Newsom plan on homelessness
Fixing Years Of Missteps On Homelessness
“There’s nothing compassionate about letting people die on the streets,” Newson said announcing the model ordinance. The plan would make it unlawful to set up camps “for the purpose of sleeping, lying, or sheltering one or more persons for more than three consecutive days or nights in the same location.” ...
Getting it all wrong about the other city by the bay
To be charitable, miners brave enough to go digging can discover occasional nuggets of value in Madrigal’s ponderous, and entirely predictable, jeremiad. For example: Oakland had its own version of the urban-renewal thuggery that would eventually lead to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In ...
Sanctuary State for The Homeless
Not all of California’s homelessness problems can be blamed on poor public policy. But much of it is due to statutes and ordinances that have incentivized vagrancy. This should not be in dispute and should inform policymaking today and in the future. But apparently some don’t see it that way. ...
Read the latest about California's ineffective government homelessness programs
A Website About Being Transparent That Isn’t
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has launched a new initiative – accountability.ca.gov – which it characterizes as “bring(ing) together thousands of locally reported data points to provide a clear picture of local communities’ work on California’s most pressing issues, including homelessness.” In case your stomach is full after eating that word ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Six ways Trump administration will change urban policy
The following policy possibilities have been derived largely from Trump’s statements. Housing. “We’re going to open up tracks of federal land for housing construction,” the real estate magnate announced on Aug. 15 at a news conference. “We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.” He ...
Grants Pass and Prop 36 Will Help Policymakers Control California’s Homeless Crisis
Between 2007 and 2014, homelessness declined faster in California than the rest of the country – an 18 percent total decline in California compared to a 9 percent total decline in the rest of the country. And then something happened in 2014. While the number of homeless in California began ...
ELECTION 2024 – California’s ballot measures could worsen homelessness
ELECTION 2024 California’s ballot measures could worsen homelessness John Seiler | October 31, 2024 On Nov. 5, voters in California cities can make the housing and homeless crises better – or worse. Alas, most likely the latter. They likely will pass the vast majority of local sales tax increases, school ...
‘An idea so bad, Seattle hasn’t done it’
“Homelessness isn’t an identity,” said a full-page ad in the Aug. 25 issue of the Spokane’s Spokesman-Review newspaper. “Tell the City Council to VOTE NO on making their hardship a protected class.” The ad, sponsored by the Washington Business Properties Association, included contact info for the Spokane City Council, which ...
