Recent News

Read enough political journalism and you will likely be convinced of a simple truth: public policy exists to serve economic ends. We grant tax deductions to encourage home ownership; we extend unemployment insurance to spur economic growth during a crisis. But there is more to public policy than the search for economic outcomes. Policies often confer social rights—powerful markers of status in society, entrenched in law and defended by courts. As British sociologist T.H. Marshall put it…

I often hear – and firmly believe – that “housing is a human right,” not a privilege.  Many communities invest resources into shelters, transitional housing, and other services for their homeless populations.  However, people experiencing homelessness need their fundamental right to housing to be respected and advanced. As Joel John Roberts, CEO of PATH (People Assisting the Homeless) in Los Angeles, told me recently, “The right to permanent housing should trump the right to sleep,…