Homelessness: Problems and Solutions

Every UC Berkeley student has encountered unhoused people, either on the sidewalks just outside of campus or lying on benches and steam vents within campus itself. Homelessness is made all the more distasteful by its salience; students avoid eye contact with the man holding his hand out for money, or cross the street to avoid the person dragging their blanket through downtown. 

Homelessness is not a new issue in Berkeley. Over the past few decades, People’s Park has become notorious for its association with homelessness, drug use, and violent crime. With the activist history of People’s Park and the security of its unhoused residents at stake, tensions came to a head in 2021 when protesters vandalized construction equipment in response to the University of California’s housing development project. In 2024, Berkeley’s homeless population numbered at 844. In Alameda County, that number was 9,450. In 2023, the AHAR recorded 653,104 homeless people in the United States, with California among the states with the highest rates of homelessness per capita. 

In light of the prevalence of homelessness in the U.S., how have parties and states tried to tackle this issue? Democrats tend to use a “Housing First” approach. They view homelessness as a public health crisis resulting from systemic failures. In 2023, the Biden-Harris administration launched the ALL INside initiative to target unsheltered homelessness in six locations, including five major cities and the state of California. The initiative prioritized expanding affordable housing and providing support to those especially at risk. In a different approach, CA governor Gavin Newsom began enforcing encampment sweeps across California earlier this year. Their effects can be seen in Berkeley and Oakland, where large homeless encampments are cleared away, only for the former residents to settle in nearby locales.  

Under the Trump administration, Republicans have moved away from Housing First in favor of accountability and institutionalization. Housing assistance is made conditional on the acceptance of substance abuse treatment, and Trump urged states to enforce civil commitment, or involuntarily committing people into institutions based on their needs. In an oft-echoed sentiment, President Trump stated that "Our once-great cities have become unlivable, unsanitary nightmares, surrendered to the homeless, the drug-addicted and the violent and dangerously deranged." 

In 2024, the Republican-led Supreme Court ruled in Grants Pass v. Johnson that local governments could penalize people sleeping on public property, even if there are no available shelter beds. This decision overturned the precedent set by Martin v. Boise, which prohibited states in the Ninth Circuit (including California) from enforcing camping regulations on unhoused people. The consequence of Martin v. Boise was that “widespread tent encampments” developed in the Western states.

If anything is clear, it is that Democrats and Republicans have yet to find a “solution” to homelessness. What, then, can be done to reduce homelessness locally and nationally? What lessons can the U.S. learn from our friends abroad? If there are solutions, would the U.S. ever feasibly execute them?