Flashback: Bad Laws Cause Homeless Crisis | John Stossel

Parts of San Francisco resemble the poorest slums in the world — even though the city is one of the richest in America.

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Encampments of street people are everywhere. Some pitch tents. Others defecate on the sidewalk. Some are mentally ill and harass people. John Stossel asks: “why does such a rich city have a huge problem with homelessness?” One reason in that the city fails to enforce even basic laws against bad behavior. The Daily Wire’s Colton Haas filmed one woman who says: “Police don’t do anything about it. They’ll get somebody for drinking a beer but they’ll walk right past people using a needle.” Many crimes, from shoplifting to car break-ins, are often ignored in San Francisco. An average of 85 cars are broken into every day in the city. Yet police make arrests in less than 2 percent of car break-ins. Even some street people complain about the behavior of crazy and violent homeless people. “They run around and they shout at themselves … They make it bad for people like us that hang out with a sign,” one man who usually sleeps on the street told us. Since store owners can’t rely on city cops to deal with the masses of homeless, some hire private police to patrol around their stores. Private police are effective, and there used to be hundreds. But then the city’s police union complained, and now there are fewer than 10 left. Stossel notes that another reason for the city’s homeless problem is that the city offers relatively generous benefits: free shelter, train tickets, and $70/month in cash. That’s in addition to food stamps people can already get.