VICTOR JOECKS: How to end homelessness in Las Vegas

Misguided compassion hasn’t solved homelessness. Vigorously enforcing the law would.

On Tuesday, Clark County officials moved through the East Las Vegas wash and tunnel, expelling numerous homeless individuals. The workers disposed of mounds of trash left behind by the vagrants. The conditions in the tunnel were so unsafe that county officials used robots and hazmat suits. The move is part of a $15 million project to improve the wash.

Scott Branner, who lived in the wash, objected. “If someone went into one of their homes and did this, they would have a fit,” he said.

There is some appeal to this argument. It sounds like an application of the Golden Rule — do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And you would object if someone forcibly expelled you from your home and threw away your belongings.

But there’s a key difference. You have a legal right to live in your home. Someone squatting on public property doesn’t.

It’s worth looking at why so many Democrat officials have lost the ability to make this distinction. First, it’s easy to feel bad for someone who is homeless. Shelter is a fundamental human need. Someone living on the streets doesn’t have that, and living in a drainage tunnel is a poor substitute.

Second, you imagine how terrible you would feel if a lost job or injury led to your eviction with no place to go. That would be horrible. Making life harder for someone who is homeless feels like kicking someone while he is down.

Third, you personally live in a well-off neighborhood where there are no homeless. You don’t have to worry about the crime and trash left behind by homeless encampments. You can ignore the downsides of homeless encampments because you don’t experience them.

The result is government officials in blue areas acting on their surface-level compassion, not their professional responsibilities.

Public spaces such as parks, sidewalks, washes and drainage tunnels exist for public purposes. When homeless individuals commandeer those spaces for their personal usage, they harm the public at large.

This downside isn’t as visible as the homeless themselves. Families stop going to parks. People stop going to businesses when the homeless take over the sidewalks. Crime victims near homeless encampments call the police, not a press conference. Then there’s the hundreds of millions of dollars taxpayers spend trying to help them.

It’s a fixable problem, especially because Clark County has passed a public camping ban. Enforce it. Jail the homeless who refuse help and treatment.

That would lead to three possible outcomes for a homeless individual such as Branner. He’d re-enter society, he’d be in jail or he’d move elsewhere. All of those outcomes are better than the rampant homelessness that the county now endures.

Having safe, clean neighborhoods with usable amenities, such as parks and sidewalks, isn’t elitist. Notice how many leftist elites build walls around their neighborhoods to ensure their families have these things.

It’s a core responsibility of local government. And it can be done.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.