Across the country, policymakers are criminalizing homelessness. The intent, they say, is to attend to the unhoused and revitalize public spaces. But service providers know enforcement-based approaches won’t solve homelessness — they will make it worse.

The federal administration recently issued an executive order that contradicts proven best practices for tackling homelessness. It even deployed the National Guard to Washington D.C. as a response to the city’s crime and homelessness, and it has threatened to do the same in other cities including Oakland and San Francisco.

Following a Supreme Court ruling last year, we saw changes at the local level, as numerous cities rushed to pass camping bans. Fremont made national news when it attempted to make helping the unhoused a misdemeanor. Ear

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