San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York are considered some of the most successful cities in America today. Homelessness, however, is the most important and notorious exception in all three cases. While officials at all levels of government are actively responding to today’s homelessness crisis—by launching new initiatives, allocating more funds, and reevaluating past approaches—success remains elusive. Numbers continue to rise and quality of life for residents remains diminished, to the point where these cities’ other accomplishments are beginning to be eclipsed by their reputations for public disorder.

Please join the Manhattan Institute’s Stephen Eide for a private roundtable dinner examining how policy responses to homelessness have differed between these three cities, and to what extent those differences are rooted in the nature of their respective crises as well as cultural, administrative and environmental factors. Participants will discuss homelessness from all relevant policy angles, including criminal justice, mental health and housing dynamics.

Since 2014, the Institute’s “Urban Policy Series” has convened conversations in cities across the country, bringing together experts and practitioners to develop ideas to shape the future of America’s cities. As part of this series, we will meet over dinner to discuss a draft paper by Eide in anticipation of its publication later in 2019.

Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor of City Journal. He researches state and local finance and social policy questions such as homelessness and mental illness. He has written for many publications, including National Review, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the New York Times, Politico, the Wall Street Journal, and The Weekly Standard. He was previously a senior research associate at the Worcester Regional Research Bureau. He holds a B.A. from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Boston College.

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