Without government, how would we be able to keep the homeless from getting shelter?
Temperatures in Gloversville, New York, are expected to fall to -4 degrees tonight. That’s bad news for the roughly 80 homeless people who live in the upstate community, and who have few options for escaping the dangerously frigid weather.
About half of those people could be housed on the second floor of a building owned by the city’s Free Methodist Church, where 40 empty beds sit ready to welcome people in from the cold.
Stopping that from happening are Gloversville’s zoning officials, who say that the commercial zoning of the church’s property and its downtown location prohibit it from hosting a cold weather shelter. Those empty beds will have to stay that way.
This is from Christian Britschgi, “Zoning Officials Stop Church from Opening 40-Bed Shelter in Sub-Zero Temperatures,” Reason, January 14, 2022.
READER COMMENTS
David Seltzer
Jan 14 2022 at 6:20pm
Maybe the homes in which those zoning officials live can be rezoned as commercial.
Alan Goldhammer
Jan 15 2022 at 8:06am
This appears to be more of a NIMBY issue than anything else. Keep the homeless out of sight and out of mind.
Mark Bahner
Jan 15 2022 at 8:35pm
A homeless person who freezes to death is going to be in all the papers and on all the local news stations.
Jon Murphy
Jan 16 2022 at 6:01am
Unfortunately, Mark, that’s not the case. These folks die without ceremony, often anonymously, and completely ignored. I’ve lived in several cold weather areas over the years (Boston, New Hampshire, and Syracuse NY). The homeless are only ever mentioned when they’re causing annoyances (panhandling, drug problems, etc). Their deaths are never mentioned in any newspaper.
Amy WIllis
Jan 16 2022 at 10:44am
Well, I never thought I’d see the day when my hometown made EconLog. 🙁
Cobey Williamson
Jan 17 2022 at 11:20am
Maybe the cowards at the Free Methodist Church could take a page out of their mentor’s book, do the right thing, and accept the consequences.
Trying to make this a case for libertarianism instead of pointing to the failure of human agency is just about as pathetic as the crime itself.
Matthias
Jan 20 2022 at 6:50am
Those two actions don’t exclude each other.
Especially since the person writing this post and the person making decisions at the church aren’t the same.
Comments are closed.