I've been getting involved in addressing homelessness in my town, and sat in on a meeting about renovating a house into a women's shelter. I was struck by how *stupidly* hard it is to help people get affordable or even emergency housing. It seems like all the wheels of regulation are jammed against any real progress.
You can read this post in blog form:
https://crucibleofthought.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-address-homelessness/
Read about Ronald Reagan and the "welfare queen":
Read about reasons unhoused people reject offers of shelter:
https://brightenthecorner.org/2023/02/12/why-some-people-avoid-homeless-shelters/
Here's my interview from March 2025 with Kevin Nye, author of a book on the church and homelessness prevention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHeMMmYdCUc
You can also watch this blog in video from at
