Unintended Consequences Strike Again…
The space under the freeway near downtown Milwaukee has typically been home to a few makeshift shelters lived in by homeless people. A while back, tents suddenly replaced those shelters. It created one of those sights that snaps your mind to attention by marrying up incongruous concepts. Your brain says, “Wait a minute… Camping? Freeway?”
But of course, these weren’t campers in the traditional sense, they were the same homeless people who lived there before, now provided with tents by a local homeless advocacy group. A caring gesture to be sure.
Things Don’t Always Turn Out the Way You Expect
But then this spring, something interesting happened. Three or four tents became ten and then ten became thirty. Currently, sixty or more tents dot the landscape below the freeway and it’s been dubbed “Tent City.” This is a space that had never attracted more than a few homeless people at a time. So, what happened? What’s different?
You know what? People respond to incentives. When you change the incentives people face, they react accordingly. We all do.
In this case, it turns out there were more changes than just free tents. The same group that gives out tents also delivers meals to Tent City three times a week. The city drops off garbage bags and picks up trash each week and someone provides porta-potties. Here’s the thing… on the surface, every one of these things makes sense and feels right.
Put together, though, these changes make living under the freeway just attractive enough to entice a significant number of people to live there who weren’t before.
A Learning Opportunity Ignored
A spokesperson for the homeless advocacy group expressed concern about the situation, but said, “We are not responsible for the surge in numbers. Frankly, providing meals three times a week does not entice someone to live under a freeway.” Her statement introduces an economic concept called marginality. Marginality reminds us that small changes in incentives don’t cause people to cross chasms, just to make modest, but sometimes meaningful changes.
In this case, I think it’s safe to assume nobody left their three-bedroom home in the suburbs to pitch a tent under 794, but around 60 people did move there from existing homeless shelters. Why? Because the homeless shelters have rules and the freeway doesn’t and the freeway is now a more attractive living option. Unfortunately, the freeway isn’t on the continuum of care like the shelters are. Recently, heroin has becoming prevalent in Tent City and there was a stabbing last month. In short, Tent City is becoming a problem for the city and for the people who live there.