Housing alone will not solve the problems of people experiencing homelessness.
Los Angeles is home to more than 65,000 individuals experiencing homelessness.
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
How you define a problem determines how you solve a problem.
Take homelessness, for example. If you see it fundamentally as a housing problem, then your solution will be to build more housing.
If you see it as an economic problem, then your solution will be to create more and better-paying jobs.
And if you see it as a quality of life problem, in that the encampments that have taken over streets and public parks, for example, diminish housed residents’ ability to enjoy their communities, then your solution will be to clean up the tents and move their inhabitants into shelters.
I see homelessness as a healthcare problem (in part). And while none of the above approaches is wrong per se, they are all stunted by a kind of myopia that prevents their…