Sacramento recently took a major step toward fixing its housing crisis by adopting the “Missing Middle Housing Plan,” which will allow apartments to be built in single-family neighborhoods. In urban-planning lingo, this is “upzoning,” which raises the density limits in designated areas. Low density limits are among the largest contributors to housing shortages nationwide, so Sacramento’s reform is sure to encourage construction.

Most policy discussions about homelessness invariably focus on how to address the “root cause.” This is reasonable enough. If we attack the root of a problem, we expect the branches to wither and die. Presumably, then, we need only to identify the root cause of homelessness to design an effective policy solution. But is there a root cause?

California’s housing crisis has residents cheering the recent passage of state Sen. Scott Weiner’s (D–San Francisco) Senate Bill 4, and not without reason. The bill seeks to make it easier to build affordable homes on land owned by religious and nonprofit higher-education institutions, leading the bill’s supporters to nickname it the “YIGBY” bill—“Yes in God’s Backyard.”