"I have slept on the Embankment (路堤), " wrote George Orwell in 1933, adding that, despite the noise and the wet and the cold, it was "much better than not sleeping at all". Nine decades on and Charing Cross and the Embankment are once again full of rough sleepers, even during the coldest days of December. It is a pattern found in much of the rich world.
However, it does not have to be this way. In post-war America, there was little rough sleeping, and homelessness was falling so fast that sociologists predicted it would soon disappear. Even today, some rich, successful cities, including Tokyo and Munich, have few people living on the streets.
These places offer lessons on how to reduce homelessness. One is that tough love can sometimes work. Conservatives argue that softer policing policies in the 1970s, including careless attitudes to public drunkenness, were in part responsible for the rise in homelessness. The world could learn something from Greece, where strong family networks ensure that those down on their luck find someone to take them in. Many experts argue that it is counterproductive (事与愿违的) to give money to someone begging on the street. Better, they say, to donate to a charity.
Yet, most people believe tougher policies will ultimately do little if housing costs remain high. This is the underlying reason for rising homelessness. So, the state can do something to help. For example, more generous rent allowance might actually save governments money in the medium term—after all, demands on health-care services and the police would decline. Another option is for the state to build more housing itself. In Singapore, a place where there is practically no homelessness, 80% of residents live in government-built flats which they buy at knock-down prices.
The most effective reform, however, would be to make building more homes easier. The problem of rough sleeping in Germany and Switzerland, two countries with minimal real-house-price growth in recent decades, is less acute. Japan has used its fair share of strong-arm policies to deal with the homeless, but then it introduced a big urban reform in the early 2000s.
