I wish there were more in depth articles about these problems. They tend to focus on “feel good” aspects while glossing over the details and trade offs made. A

I wish there were more in depth articles about these problems. They tend to focus on “feel good” aspects while glossing over the details and trade offs made. As I get older more and more I find that all new ideas are old ideas. As if great idea just sitting there, oblivious to everyone else, waiting for someone to pick it up. Often someone else tried the solution but it never worked. What changed? That’s what I want to know. For example, the article has a click-bait headline that makes you feel good because homelessness “ended”. Apparently homelessness was reduced, not ended. It’s a better outcome than before. > In the last 10 years, the “Housing First” program provided 4,600 homes in Finland. While in 2017 there were still about 1,900 people living on the streets, the program could reduce this number to less than 1000 long-term homeless by 2019 – but there were enough places for them in emergency shelters so that they at least didn’t have to sleep outside anymore. Also, the math is murky. The article states that the direct cost of housing is cheaper than the current expenses. It’s quite easy to figure out the cost of building new things but very difficult for those other services. > Creating housing for people costs money. In the past 10 years, 270 million euros were spent on the construction, purchase and renovation of housing as part of the “Housing First” programme. However, Juha Kaakinen points out, this is far less than the cost of homelessness itself. Because when people are in emergency situations, emergencies are more frequent: Assaults, injuries, breakdowns. The police, health care and justice systems are more often called upon to step in – and this also costs money. The first book I read that went into these complex issues was “Basic Economics” by Thomas Sowell. He made convincing arguments about how economics work and how of often polices designed to help people hurt them. Rent control in NY was a policy designed to help people but actually made it worse for many.