<story><title>Finland has slashed homelessness; the rest of Europe is failing</title><url>https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/12/18/finland-has-slashed-homelessness-the-rest-of-europe-is-failing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>austincheney</author><text>The city of Austin, TX could be a case study of what not to do.  I was remotely employed to company with offices in Austin in 2014-2015 and it was awesome to visit and walk around down town.  I always had a blast.&lt;p&gt;I visited Austin in 2019 and there were homeless people EVERYWHERE.  Every green space and nearly every street corner seemed to be littered with homeless people.  The difference crystal clear.  Something in the handling of the homeless problem had failed in that city.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>burntoutfire</author><text>&amp;gt; Something in the handling of the homeless problem had failed in that city.&lt;p&gt;Or, the homeless are recent migrants from other areas? At least where i live, the homeless all congregate in biggest wealthiest cities, because it&amp;#x27;s easier to beg, their presence blends in more and also local communities are more atomized so they don&amp;#x27;t fight off the homeless as hard as in smaller places. I&amp;#x27;ve heard a story of one homeless guy who have recently been sleeping on a bus stop near my home - he&amp;#x27;s basically travelling from one big city center to another, and stays as long as the police doesn&amp;#x27;t chase him off the area.</text></comment>
<story><title>Finland has slashed homelessness; the rest of Europe is failing</title><url>https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/12/18/finland-has-slashed-homelessness-the-rest-of-europe-is-failing</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>austincheney</author><text>The city of Austin, TX could be a case study of what not to do.  I was remotely employed to company with offices in Austin in 2014-2015 and it was awesome to visit and walk around down town.  I always had a blast.&lt;p&gt;I visited Austin in 2019 and there were homeless people EVERYWHERE.  Every green space and nearly every street corner seemed to be littered with homeless people.  The difference crystal clear.  Something in the handling of the homeless problem had failed in that city.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>SaintGhurka</author><text>To add some missing details on this, in 2018&amp;#x2F;19 the city council passed some ordinances that removed the criminality of some homeless activities.  Specifically, they made it explicitly legal to camp in most public spaces (excluding parks) and they permit panhandling, sitting and sleeping on public sidewalks.&lt;p&gt;So there&amp;#x27;s a lot of &amp;quot;campsites&amp;quot; downtown.  A lot of tents, or just people in sleeping bags on the sidewalk.  A lot of people peeing against the buildings.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s hard to score the upsides and downsides without starting an argument, but it feels like much of Austin has soured on the &amp;quot;decriminalization of homelessness&amp;quot;.</text></comment>