Housing First

I saw an old friend at a coffee shop. 

We started talking about the neighborhood, and he said Housing First was a failure. 

Housing First is the dominant idea behind current thinking in homelessness. Get a roof over someone's head first, then connect them with services. 

The saying is there's nothing about being mentally ill or addicted to drugs that is going to be improved by living on the street. 

I left the cafe and saw police cars down the road.

By the time I got to the scene the police were gone and a lone man stood on the corner talking to nobody. 

Did you see what the cops were here for, I asked. 

"They were here because I bought the jail and they won't let me run it," he said. 

He had no shoes. 

You bought the jail, I asked

"I paid four billion dollars for it, and they won't let me run it. It's just racism," he said.