3 Ways Government Prevents Solutions to Homelessness

In reality, homelessness is, by-and-large, a product of government action.

According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment Report, as of 2017 there were around 554,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night, or roughly 0.17% of the population.

Some people look at this fact and rail against private property owners as being greedy and selfish, as if they are the cause of this homelessness.

In reality, homelessness is, by-and-large, a product of government action.

And I’m going to share with you three key facts that make it abundantly clear that government is not only the problem, but also is preventing the solutions.

First, the Federal government holds some 640 million acres of land to the exclusion of others.

This land is kept as preserves and managed under agency bodies like the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service.

That the government holds this much land and prevents homesteading on it inherently keeps people from being able to have a new location on which to establish a home.

While some may think that this land should be kept only for wildlife, one cannot rationalize keeping human beings in need from having a home on undeveloped, unowned lands.

If each homeless person took up a generous single acre to live on, there would still be over 639.4 million acres of land for wildlife and natural habitat.

Which means that the government, in preventing homesteading on these lands, is creating artificial scarcity.

The reality is that land access is not an issue.

Secondly, homelessness is also fostered by property taxes.

As people cannot truly own their home outright thanks to property taxes, homeless people just trying to get on their feet will be inherently oppressed by local taxing bodies who will seize their home for lack of funds, even if it was already paid off.

For example, Eileen Battisti, an elderly widow, accidentally underpaid her taxes by six dollars and thirty cents. Unaware, this debt ballooned with interest and penalties to a few hundred dollars and the local county forced a sale on her home, evicting her in the process.

Eileen’s story matches the experience of many others who fell behind on tax bills and lost their home in foreclosure.
So long as the state can keep charging people taxes to keep their home, everyone at large is effectively a neo-feudal serf, where people are forced to work for the government lest the government takes their home.

Lastly, it should be noted that Americans are some of the most generous people in the world.

In 2018 alone, charitable giving topped over $410 billion dollars. This amount is more than the gross domestic product than dozens of countries, such as Denmark, Norway, and Greece.

Among those providing charity are people trying to give the homeless a new home to live in.

For example, offering the homeless specialized “tiny homes.”

Elvis Summers, a man who was himself once homeless, built tiny homes for people in Los Angeles so they could have a stable shelter within encampments. The government didn’t like this, and so seized these homes from the homeless, stealing their personal items along with the home.

This example is one, among many, of government officials stopping people from voluntarily trying to help others have a stable life.

Even giving homeless people food or temporary shelter has been met with state threats of violence, from the arrest of 90-year-old Arnold Abbott for feeding the homeless in a South Florida Park, to a church in Maryland being threatened with a $12,000-per-day-fine for housing homeless people in cold weather.

With these facts in mind, please consider how the state is preventing people from attaining a home and how government bureaucrats persecute those trying to help homeless people in need.

When you see the bigger picture, it is apparent that those in state power don’t want others to realize that the public at large really doesn’t need its awful “services” to do good for others.

SOURCES:

LAND AND ECONOMY:

Homelessness in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States

Giving USA 2018: Americans Gave $410.02 Billion to Charity in 2017, Crossing the $400 Billion Mark for the First Time
https://givingusa.org/giving-usa-2018-americans-gave-410-02-billion-to-charity-in-2017-crossing-the-400-billion-mark-for-the-first-time/

Federal lands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_lands

List of countries by GDP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

PERSECUTION OF PEOPLE TRYING TO HELP:

90-year-old Florida man arrested for second time in a week after feeding the homeless again
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-90-arrested-week-feeding-homeless-article-1.2002790

L.A. is seizing tiny homes from the homeless
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-tiny-houses-seized-20160224-story.html

Dundalk church fined $12,000 for helping the homeless - WMAR
https://www.wmar2news.com/news/region/baltimore-county/dundalk-church-fined-12000-for-helping-the-homeless

La. health officials destroy 1,600 pounds of venison donated to homeless shelter
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/la-health-officials-destroy-1600-pounds-venison-do/

FORECLOSURE FOR TAXES:

The other foreclosure crisis: Losing a home over $400 in back taxes
https://money.cnn.com/2012/07/10/real_estate/tax-liens/index.htm

Widow Loses House Over $6.30 Tax Bill
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/04/29/widow-loses-house-over-6-30-tax-bill/#5ea47b587aa1

One-Fifth of Detroit's Population Could Lose Their Homes
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/one-fifth-of-detroits-population-could-lose-their-homes/381694/

The Other Foreclosure Crisis
http://www.nclc.org/issues/the-other-foreclosure-crisis.html

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