Homeless Watch

The Rocky reports on an increase in suburban homelessness in the Denver area over the last five years. Look carefully at the numbers they use:

County	1998	2001	2003
Jefferson	970	902	1267
Adams	439	1054	1228
Arapahoe	344	668	1148
Boulder	434	1084	932
Douglas	17	11	41

First of all, the numbers are hardly alarming. Boulder County has seen a decrease, possibly by zoning the homeless into other counties. And Douglas County suffers from the same metric that consistently places it among the five fastest-growing counties in the country: percentages. But the greatest increase came not between 2001 and 2003, during the recession and recovery, but during the "boom" years of 1998-2001. Why? Because people move towards opportunity. There were many more people relocating during the supposedly stable 1950s than during the Route-66 heyday of the 30s. And not a single county listed doubled its population between 1998 and 2001. These homeless are a real problem, and they are real people, but we can't delude ourselves into thinking that economic policy is either to blame or the answer.