The Man at the Corner with the Bucket

Susan Estrich on Jun 4, 2026

I was stopped at a red light when I noticed a man on the sidewalk pouring water over his head. He had a big bucket and a cup that he filled with water from the bucket to dump over his head. At first, I thought he might be trying to cool off, but it wasn't that hot of a day. It was a long light. I realized he was taking a shower. As it were.

When the light changed, I was embarrassed to pull away. What is wrong with us?

I'm tired of the debate about whether homelessness is a housing problem or a mental health one. Some of both obviously. According to every study I've read, most homeless people are on the street because they don't have a place to live. Big surprise. If offered a safe, secure place they can afford, they would take it in a minute. But those aren't on offer very often.

And yes, there are some crazy people out there, and some scary ones too. Which means they need even more help, and we can't force them to take advantage of help that in most places, simply doesn't exist.

We depend on the police to keep us safe, but they can't solve the problem of homelessness, and the fear that it engenders on all sides. Some of the fear is fact-based; most is not. But how do you tell the difference? When you see a homeless person you don't know, how do you know whether to cross the street or drive on or give him a doughnut?

It's even worse when you see children with them, begging. Is there a law against that? What if they really are hungry? Sure, you can blame the parents, but what good does that do?

Between 2023 and 2024, the United States experienced an unprecedented 18% rise in homelessness, from 653,104 people during the 2023 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count to 771,480 people during the 2024 PIT. Experts attribute the increase to the affordability crisis, which has only gotten worse.

No one wants to step over a person as they walk down the street. No one wants to confront someone who just may be one of the crazy ones. So many of us avoid any contact at all. It does not solve the problem. Homelessness is not a blight, although that is often how it feels. It is a human tragedy.

But unlike many human tragedies, which we are powerless to address, homelessness is a problem we can address. We can continue the endless debate of whether homelessness is fundamentally a housing problem as opposed to homelessness being a mental illness and addiction problem or recognize that it is, of course, both and we need to address both. Then, we can clear the streets.

But we can't clear the streets -- at least not for more than a few days at a time -- if we don't have safe and affordable shelter on offer; and that won't be enough for those with serious mental illness or addiction issues if it doesn't also come with services.

And all that is very expensive. The war against Iran cost more.

The most widely cited federal estimate is that 771,480 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States on a single night in January 2024.

The official cost of the war in Iran as of mid-May was $29 billion, but independent experts put the real direct military cost closer to $70 billion, and then, longer term, there are the downstream expenses that could take the number to the hundreds of billions.

Imagine we spent that money -- smartly, in a coordinated way -- to attack homelessness. Using even the most conservative numbers, it's some $37,000 per person. Which should be enough. Imagine what we could have accomplished.

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