You can’t talk about homelessness in America without talking about Ronald Reagan.

When Reagan was elected Governor of California, the state had a large number of mental hospitals in place. They weren’t perfect, but treatment was available. reagan thought these places were a waste of tax payer money and had them closed. California now had a lot of homeless folks. They annoyed the locals, so the state had to hire more cops and build more jails.

This worked so well that Reagan did exactly the same when he became President.

My family lived in New York during that era. We went from a few homeless folks down on the Bowery to literally thousands. Every park was full.