WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS IS A GOOD FIVE-CENT FLOPHOUSE?: Interesting Weekly Standard piece on reducing homelessness by, basically, bringing back rooming houses. I do not know enough to comment on this stuff; if others have thoughts, send ’em in. Link via SRD. Snippets:

…At a remarkably underreported conference in Denver in May, advocates for the homeless met to discuss a pattern of falling homeless populations across the country. In the past six months, New York has announced a reduction of 13 percent, Denver 11 percent, Portland 20 percent, Miami 30 percent, Philadelphia 50 percent. …

“Housing First” has now returned to the original idea–that housing is the problem–with a twist. The problem is not that the federal government is not building public housing. The real problem is that cities have been very efficient in eliminating bottom-rung housing through building code enforcement, zoning restrictions, and (in cites such as New York and San Francisco) rent control. All these “reforms” were supposed to upgrade “substandard” housing and improve opportunities for the poor. In fact they worsened conditions for the very poor.

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