Nothing is permanent. Everything flows. History repeats itself and we always come full circle. So what makes us think we can break the cycle and stop this “doom loop?”
The doom loop refers to the economic and government malaise of degradation and decrepitude afflicting cities throughout the country. It’s an economic black hole that sucks the life and light out of every city center. Businesses shutter and call it quits, residents flee for higher ground, tax revenue dries up and crime and vagrancy rises, creating a downward spiral — a doom loop.
San Francisco, one of the most expensive places to live in the world, home to more tech billionaires than it knows what to do with, can’t currently escape the loop. Viral videos of homeless encampments on the sidewalks tell the story of desperation. How can a city where the average house sells for $1,290,000 experience such high rates of crime and wealth at the same time? Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Whole Foods — America’s iconic retailers — closed for good.
In St. Louis, the Railway Exchange Building used to be the heart of downtown. For over a century, people would bustle in and out of its doors or dine at its many restaurants. Now, the 21-story building lays empty as does the 44-story AT&T building just a few blocks away. Most of the windows are boarded up and police are often called to put out fires or push out people trying to make a home of the empty offices.
On a recent trip to Los Angeles for a Laker’s game, I realized two things. One, LeBron James is enormous, and two, Española ain’t no Beverly Hills. But it doesn’t have to be Arlington Heights either. Driving from the streets of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood all the way to downtown L.A., you see a slow but real degradation. Somewhere along the line, California went wrong by allowing anyone to set up a camp, tent or makeshift home anywhere, on storefront sidewalks, front yards, parks, the street. Entire neighborhoods were covered with blue tarps, broken-down Winnebagos, trash and mostly solemnly, people.
This past Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Grants Pass v. Johnson that will forever transform the rights of all Americans regarding the ability to camp, sleep and basically live in public spaces. Depending on which side you listen to, it will either decide whether it is constitutionally OK to punish people for becoming involuntarily unhoused, establishing cruel and unusual punishment as provided by the Eighth Amendment, or whether the court will give municipalities authority to prohibit people from camping in public spaces.
The 9th district court ruled previously that governments could not remove people from public spaces unless they provided them with housing or shelter, preventing many cities and states from removing anybody without a place to live from parks, sidewalks and parked cars.
There is an entirely new lexicon of words that have previously heretofore never been used. Terms like unhoused have replaced homeless. And the court may center around the phrase “involuntarily homeless.”
Instead of focusing narrowly on whether a government must choose between allowing people to lawfully sleep on our riverbanks or provide them with a place to live regardless of cost, we ought to focus on improving their economic opportunities — simply put, government entities ought to make it easier to hire people. It is not just the exorbitant cost of housing that makes homelessness an issue. It is the barriers to gainful employment that make it hard for people to earn a living.
Businesses are strapped with rules, requirements, taxes, insurance and forms to fill out before they even hire a new employee. And it seems every year government tries to impose new tariffs, higher wages, more requirements and laws that “improve worker conditions”. Ultimately these efforts thwart job growth and stop businesses from hiring the very people they wish to house.
Cycles like the doom loop are self-fulfilling prophecies. The more we believe them, the harder they are to resist. Work-from-home policies have emptied office spaces, the proliferation of fentanyl has made shoplifting more desirable than ever, and fewer tax dollars make preventing crime near impossible.
We are left to defend the soul and sanctity of our small towns. If cities and states with budgets, resources and technical prowess infinitely greater than ours can’t figure it out, what are we left to do? Give a job when you can. Stop enabling. Stop whatever sense of entitlement you or those you love have grown to deserve. Lend a hand. Provide real mental health and substance abuse services.
Yet there is one concept in this whole mix that has me thinking most deeply: the thought that a government is responsible for providing housing or shelter for anyone who is unhoused — voluntarily or involuntarily. And that if it doesn’t, it must allow anyone to sleep anywhere.
When, in our long history of humanity, civilization, war, famine, Christianity, has it been the responsibility of government to provide equal and gray housing for everyone? And when former systems have attempted to do so, have we not learned from their failure? If we are to call ourselves a democratic and evolved society, let us break the cycle of failure.
What is left of self-determination and self-resilience?
The Supreme Court expects to rule at the end of June. Maybe they will decide for us.