Should it be illegal to sleep outside?

We did not call police or a city agency to say, “There’s a woman living in a car on our street.” I’ve reported stories where I’ve spent the night in city homeless shelters. They can feel crowded and unsafe, and and have little privacy. I can see why someone would choose to stay on the street, or in their car.

Neighbors told us that city social workers came to speak with the woman in the car, and days later the woman was gone. We hoped she had been brought someplace safe.

A few days after that, my wife saw a city worker hook up the woman’s car to be towed. He said he didn’t know where the woman in the car had been taken — it was a different department — but that she could reclaim her car after she paid several thousand dollars in fines.