UT has come up with a novel approach to helping the homeless: giving houses away (saving millions and decreasing homelessness rate by 74%).
"Utah is the fourth most conservative state in the union, according to a January Gallup survey. Only 15 percent of residents identify as 'liberal.' Yet the Beehive State is on the cusp of ending chronic homelessness using a new method that would appear to come straight from the Nancy Pelosi playbook—by giving away housing. In 2005, the Republican administration of Gov. Jon Huntsman introduced a 'centrally led and locally developed' strategy to defeat long-term homelessness. Called Housing Works, the program began with 17 people who had lived on the streets at least once in the previous year. The goal was to lead them to self-sufficiency, but they kept the housing even if they failed to pull their lives together. Today, this strings-free approach has decreased homelessness by 74 percent...." -- John Stoehr, the American Conservative