For our look at agenda setting and "loud signals."
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Who will they take care of?
Is the homeless problem — as it’s seen by the government — a problem for the homeless people on the streets? Or is it a problem for the people who aren’t homeless, but have to step around homeless people, contend with homeless people, see homeless people every day?
Your mileage might differ depending on whether you’re talking about the state government or the folks at the city halls in places like Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and many of the state’s smaller cities.
The policies they write are responses to a problem, formulations concocted to set things right. And by its very nature, any policy reveals the problem it is supposed to solve. The authors of a policy address the problem they see — even if it’s not the problem others see.
In this case, policy might address the problem of homeless people — often unkempt, dirty, sometimes disturbing — on the streets where the rest of us encounter them daily. The “us” in that line is important, as it represents voters and the people most likely to command the attention of the policymakers. And they are complaining about a real problem; in a letter to Austin Mayor Steve Adler last week, Gov. Greg Abbott cited reports of “violence, used needles, and feces littering the streets of Austin and endangering Texas residents.”
Policy might be aimed at the underlying problem of why those homeless people are on the streets at all, and what might be done about that. Two obstacles come immediately to mind: Housing the homeless in any of the state’s big or medium-size cities would be expensive, first; second, the political rewards are smaller, as the people being helped aren’t the people who cast ballots and make political donations that benefit policymakers.
