California Voters Opt for Orderly Urbanism on Election Day
Golden State voters decisively rejected progressive approaches to crime and housing.
Homelessness
Kamala's California Problem
As skyrocketing costs and mass exoduses define the Golden State, Democrats face a crucial reckoning.
No Place To Go
Despite homelessness being on the rise, local governments keep cracking down on efforts to shelter those without permanent housing.
Zoning Police and NIMBYs Want To Keep People Homeless
Vineyard owners face $120,000 in fines for letting an employee and his family live on their 60-acre property without a permit.
Gorsuch Apes NIMBY Government Lies in Supreme Court's Grants Pass Decision
Plus: A disappointing first round of "Baby YIMBY" grant awards, President Joe Biden endorses rent control, and House Republicans propose cutting housing spending.
Supreme Court Rules That Punishing the Homeless for Sleeping Outside Isn't 'Cruel and Unusual'
Homeless advocates say the court's decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson gives local governments a blank check to "to arrest or fine those with no choice but to sleep outdoors."
Reason Wins 7 Southern California Journalism Awards
First-place finishes include an investigative piece on egregious misconduct in federal prison, a documentary on homelessness, best magazine columnist, and more.
Does Miami Have the Answer to Homelessness?
There may not be a perfect solution to ending homelessness, but there are some clear principles to reduce the friction for those working to do so.
Mike Solana: Can San Francisco Be Saved?
Pirate Wires Editor in Chief Mike Solana discusses the lessons of San Francisco's politics, his vision for the future, and his critiques of libertarianism.
The Housing Policy Implications of Taylor Swift
Plus: An interview with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis about the state's blockbuster year for housing reform.
Zoning Regulations Empower Control Freaks—and Bigots
The Institute for Justice has launched a project to reform land use regulation.
Reason Is a Finalist for 14 Southern California Journalism Awards
Nominated stories include journalism on messy nutrition research, pickleball, government theft, homelessness, and more.
Ohio Pastor Criminally Charged for Letting People Sleep In Church. Again.
Plus: California's landmark law ending single-family-only zoning is struck down, Austin, Texas, moves forward with minimum lot size reform, and the pro-natalist case for pedestrian infrastructure.
Costly Complexity
The needless complexity of affordable housing programs are hurting people they're supposed to help.
Combat Homelessness by Ending Exclusionary Zoning
The Eighth Amendment provides little, if any, protection for the homeless. But courts can help them by striking down exclusionary zoning, which is the major cause of housing shortages that lead to homelessness.
Chicago Mayor's Solution to Homelessness Fails to Convince Voters
Instead of a hefty real estate tax hike, voters want more logical, long-term solutions to a genuine crisis.
Licenses and Dead Bodies
Plus: Evil tech bros want to teach kids math, Utah and Texas tackle DEI, Trump loves Sinéad, and more...
Squatters Invaded His Mom's House—so He Fought Back
Thanks to "squatters' rights" laws, evicting a squatter can be so expensive and cumbersome that some people simply walk away from their homes.
The Feds Give States Millions To Fix Homelessness, but States Are Sending It Back
Bureaucratic ineptitude leads to waste—and more people on the streets.
Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Enforcement of Houston Ordinance Against Feeding the Homeless
The judge found that Food Not Bombs' activity was clearly expressive conduct under the First Amendment.
Houston Faces First Amendment Lawsuit for Cracking Down on Feeding the Homeless
Food Not Bombs activists argue that feeding the needy is core political speech, and that they don't need the city's permission to do it.
Princeton's Matthew Desmond Gets Everything Wrong About Poverty's Root Causes
Desmond's analysis never goes deeper than his facile assertion that "poverty persists because some wish and will it to."
Zoning Bans the Good Samaritan
Plus: Beverly Hills homeowners can't build new pools until their city allows new housing, a ballot initiative would legalize California's newest city, and NIMBYs sue to overturn zoning reform (again).
'Someone Is Going To Die Today': Did Daniel Penny Act in Self-Defense?
"I have encountered many things," one witness told the grand jury, "but nothing that put fear into me like that."
Homeless Encampments Cost These Cities Tens of Thousands of Dollars Per Tent
L.A., Portland, and other cities are spending millions to house homeless people in outdoor "safe sleeping" sites.
Welfare Is Great—for the Welfare Bureaucrats
The clients get a confusing maze and a lot of incentives to stay on welfare.
12 Increasingly Off-the-Wall Housing Reforms
American cities and states passed a lot of good, incremental housing reforms in 2023. In 2024, we'd benefit from trying out some long shot ideas.
California Officials Force Elderly Couple To Dismantle Home, Citing Blocked Ocean Views
Plus: Austin's newly passed zoning reforms could be in legal jeopardy, HUD releases its latest census of the homeless population, and a little-discussed Florida reform is spurring a wave of home construction.
San Francisco's APEC Cleanup Hasn't 'Fixed' Its Homelessness Problem
No amount of encampment sweeps and pressure-washing sidewalks is going to solve the problem of thousands of people living on the streets.
L.A. Wants To Commandeer Vacant Hotel Rooms as Homeless Housing
Los Angeles voters will decide in March whether to force hotels to report empty rooms to the city and accept vouchers from homeless people.
At California GOP Convention, Donald Trump Promises To 'Liberate' Communist California
With a second term, the former president promised to end California's water shortage, clear homeless encampments, and conduct the biggest deportation operation in American history.
Banning Criminal Background Checks Will Lead To More Housing Discrimination, Not Less
The best reforms would correct the real problems of overcriminalization and overincarceration, as well as removing all artificial barriers to building more homes.
Ending Poverty Requires Serious Policy, Not Political Platitudes
Another exercise in nonsense by state lawmakers in California.
Homeless Veteran Sues Police After Service Dog Tased During Panhandling Arrest
Joshua Rohrer not only seeks damages for his violent arrest but also wants the city's anti-panhandling ordinance overturned on First Amendment grounds.
Declaring a 'Right' to Housing Won't Solve Homelessness
Instead, try making it easier to build more housing!
Zoning Police Criminalize Kindness in Oregon
A town clamps down on distributing clothes, personal care items, and food to the homeless.
Fearmongering Won't Solve Climate Change
Global warming is an issue. But there are other pressing problems that deserve the world's attention.
City Council Indictment Shows How L.A.'s Overregulated Housing Market Breeds Corruption
City Councilmember Curren Price is indicted for steering favors to affordable housing developers who were bribing his wife.
Homelessness Isn't an Unfixable Problem
Start by looking at the government policies that have made it worse.
City Threatens Christian Group With Fines, Prosecution for Giving the Homeless Muffins, Coffee
The Department of Justice is now intervening on behalf of the Orange County, California, group's right to distribute food at its resource center in Santa Ana.
Jordan Neely Wasn't Killed by the System
Opposing sides of the debate around a New York City subway homicide have found unlikely common ground.
San Francisco's Got Problems. There's No Need To Exaggerate Them for Political Reasons.
If you don't like San Francisco, that's fine, but don't tell tall tales about it.
Lawsuit: Police Officer Broke a 61-Year-Old Woman's Leg, Then Bragged He 'Man-Dropped' Her
Before assaulting her, the cops taunted her for being homeless, she claims.
Trump Advocates Mass Incarceration, 'Tent Cities' To Address Homelessness
The plan is unlikely to work, and the government already has a sordid recent history of funneling people into tent cities anyway.
