by Mary J. Ruwart

The primary cause of homelessness is government regulation in the form of zoning restrictions, building codes, and construction moratoriums, which raise housing prices above what many can pay. (See William Tucker’s “The Excluded Americans: Homelessness and Housing Policies.”) Consequently, homelessness is higher in cities that have more of these regulations.

During my years as a landlady to low-income tenants, building inspectors told me to install new kitchen counters a couple of inches longer or to rebuild staircases to increase width by an inch. When I pointed out that these expensive and unnecessary changes would increase rents for the poor who lived there, one inspector replied, “Good. We’ll get these people out of our city.” Other Michigan landlords told me similar stories. We didn’t have homelessness in our small town until the city decided to make annual housing inspections mandatory, and compelled landlords to make such ridiculous changes.

Even Mother Teresa’s helpers were no match for government regulators. In 1988, Mother Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity, bought two abandoned buildings from New York City at $1 apiece and raised $500,000 for repairs. The city approved their plans for a homeless shelter, but after construction had begun, inspectors demanded installation of a $100,000 elevator. The nuns didn’t want to spend 20% of their funds on something that wouldn’t really help the poor, but the city wouldn’t budge. In frustration, the good Sisters abandoned the project. The street people of New York City, who would have been thrilled to live in these buildings even without an elevator, remained homeless.

In a libertarian society, these regulations and restrictions that put people out on the street wouldn’t exist. Homelessness would be less of a problem, but it might still exist for those incapable of supporting themselves. However, the help available to those unfortunates would be much greater.

Our welfare bureaucracy wastes the tax dollars that we target for the needy. For example, in 1992, enough taxes were budgeted for aid to give every poor family of four $35,756, or $4,700 more than the average family income at the time! (That’s according to J.C. Goodman, G.W. Reed, and P.S. Ferrara in “Why Not Abolish the Welfare State?” It was published in 1994 by the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas, TX.) The poor get very little of this windfall, however. Instead, as much as 74 cents of every dollar goes to program administrators! (That figure comes from R.L. Woodson’s “Breaking the Poverty Cycle: Private Sector Alternatives to the Welfare State.” The 1988 study was published by Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives in Harrisburg, PA.)

In addition, these administrators don’t seek out the homeless. If you aren’t able to walk into the welfare office and provide an address, you won’t get a check. Consequently, the poorest of the poor, the homeless, have no access to tax-supported welfare.

Today, the most destitute and helpless of our society rely almost entirely on the private sector for aid. People donate their spare change; church-run soup kitchens provide an occasional hot meal; compassionate health-care workers give free medical attention.

In a libertarian society, people would be wealthier and more able to help the homeless. Of course, fewer people would need such help once the government regulations no longer made housing unaffordable for them!

Mary J. Ruwart, Ph.D., is the author of Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle, a liberty primer for liberals, Christians, New Agers, and pragmatists. She also wrote Short Answers to the Tough Questions: Sound Bites for the Libertarian Candidate after her Internet column (www.self-gov.org) of the same name.

This article originally published at:  http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4863