Oakland just adopted a new policy to speed up RV tows after officials grew concerned the city was becoming a "destination" for displaced residents fleeing crackdowns in neighboring jurisdictions. San Jose has been aggressively clearing encampments. And all across the region, the same people — roughly 9,500 homeless in Alameda County and 10,700 in Santa Clara County — are being shuffled around like a problem nobody wants to own.

Let's be clear about two things simultaneously, because this issue demands it:

First, cities have every right — and arguably a duty — to maintain public spaces, enforce parking laws, and ensure residents feel safe in their neighborhoods. Permanent RV encampments create legitimate public health and safety concerns. Property owners and taxpayers shouldn't have to accept indefinite occupation of public streets as the new normal.

But second, what we're watching right now isn't policy. It's a regional game of hot potato, and it's staggeringly wasteful. Every tow costs money. Every sweep costs money. Every time an outreach worker loses track of a client, every time someone loses critical medications or paperwork to a trash compactor, that's a failure we'll pay for later — in emergency room visits, in law enforcement hours, in human suffering that compounds and gets more expensive to address.

UCSF researcher Margot Kushel calls it a "race to the bottom," with cities passing ever-stronger encampment restrictions just to stay ahead of their neighbors. She's not wrong about the dynamic, even if we might disagree about the solution.

The libertarian in us recoils at the idea that cities should just tolerate encampments indefinitely. But the fiscal conservative in us is equally appalled by a system that spends enormous sums moving the same people in circles without ever reducing the headcount. This is government at its most performative — looking busy, accomplishing nothing, billing taxpayers for the privilege.

What would actually work? Real regional coordination instead of jurisdictional finger-pointing. Streamlined shelter options that don't require people to jump through bureaucratic hoops designed in the 1970s. And yes, dramatically more housing — particularly the kind that local governments have spent decades blocking through zoning restrictions and permitting nightmares.

The Bay Area has some of the most expensive government in America. The least we could ask is that it stop spending money to relocate problems and start spending it to solve them.