It’s called the “broken window theory,” and yet, it applies to more than broken windows. It applies to people. More specifically, it applies to the homeless.

Studies and statistics show that it’s easier to PREVENT homelessness, than to cure it. It’s easier to help people through a rough patch, pay their rent for a couple of months, or help out with a utility bill or two, than to try to find them room in a shelter. It’s easier to get a job when you have a job. It’s easier to keep a place picked up and clean than to go in and have to all but renovate to find the floor and countertops. So what is the broken window theory good for anyway?

The broken window theory is a strategy posited by George Kelling for preventing vandalism. His theory says that by fixing problems, like broken windows and graffiti, when they are small you’re much less likely to have them become bigger. In the city this means repair the broken windows or paint over the graffiti in a warehouse or office building within a short time, say, a day or a week. If you do that, then vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage.

Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to accumulate (or for the rate of littering to be much less). Problems do not escalate and thus respectable residents do not flee a neighborhood, and the neighborhood remains a “good” one - not one inhabited by crackheads, drunks and prostitutes. Let a couple of broken windows remain broken and soon all the windows are broken, trash begins to accumulate, the block looks uncared for, criminals move in and good citizens move out and eventually the neighborhood is given over to crime.

The broken window theory has evolved into the “zero-tolerance,” rule in schools - regarding knives and weapons - the thought being, “Keep EVERYTHING out and illegal and soon no one will bring anything to school other than themselves and their books.”

The broken window theory is part of the reasoning behind cities hanging potted plants and flowers around their downtown, and their patrols to keep the homeless off the corner, and out of sight of the public. By dressing up the downtown with banners, flags, flowers and clean sidewalks, cities hope to attract people, commerce and more business - the inverse, or flip side of the theory.

The broken window theory is the reason why homeowners don’t want renters in their neighborhood and why they say they decrease property values. Renters, say homeowners, don’t take good care of their home - at least not like an owner would. Once there’s one run down property, owners near that property will sell or rent and one by one, the whole neigborhood will eventually go down. It’s like a cancer. Don’t let it get a toehold. Make residents mow their yards, take out their trash and keep their homes repaired - no cars rusting in the front yard. The reverse is true too. It’s called gentrifying the neighborhood. Find a rundown neighborhood where prices are low because it’s a dump, buy a house and fix it up and eventually other owners will do the same, bringing an increase in property values as the homes are fixed up.

Anyone who has ever watched a mobile home go up in a rural area knows what happens. Others follow. That’s why the opposition to the first is so strong. We understand that once something gets a toehold - be it trash or treasure, it will attract its likeness. But it works both ways.

Try it. Get up early, make your bed. Never leave dishes in the sink and you won’t ever have a stack of dishes in the sink. Exercise one day and the next and the next and never miss a day and eventually you’ll have lost that weight, gained that physique. Be religious about putting away 10% of your income and eventually you’ll have saved enough for that new car. It’s harder to keep something up, than to let it go, but it’s well worth the price to reap the reward.

The first thing I do every morning I”m on the road is clean the van. Even if I cleaned it before I went to bed, I still sweep, make up the bed, organize and tidy. It makes me feel better and more energetic when I get behind the wheel to drive off. Once I fold one piece of laundry, I fold it all. You know the drill.

It’s not just things that this theory works on. It’s people too. Once someone become homeless and no longer has access to a shower, or a way to stay clean, they stop showering every day. They stop shaving every day. It becomes easier and easier not to wear clean clothes, and to care about how you look. It’s like exercising. Miss one day and it’s easier to miss another. Gain that first five pounds and it’s easy enough to look the other way while the next 50 pile on. I quit combing my hair and caring about how I look when I’m sick for a few days and guess what? It’s easier to spend the next week “looking homeless.”

Come home preoccupied and neglect your relationship with your spouse often enough and you wake up one day and wonder, “What happened to us?” One broken window is all it takes.

I’ve started and abandoned dozens of blogs - because I didn’t write one day, and another…finding that it got easier to let the blog go each day. I’m staying with a friend right now….off the road and not really doing what I set out to do - document and tell the stories of the homeless who have gotten back on their feet or are in the process. It’s too easy to follow the path of least resistance, to not do the extra work to keep up the thing we love - be it a blog, a job, a career, our looks.

Disorder is infectious and contagious. Get a new car and you’ll wash, wax and polish it until it gets that first scratch or ding or bump. You spill something or toss a fast food bag on the floor because you’re in a hurry, or you leave that coffee cup on the dash and suddenly your new car begins to look old. You quit washing it and the cost of having it detailed is too much. You give it a lick and a promise and eventually begin thinking the rain is all you need to clean off that latest coat of dust.

This week I’m in the process of inventorying my van, my life, my work and deciding which windows to start fixing first. I need a haircut. I have clothes to fold. I have projects to complete. Inertia is calling…but I try to remember…fix it now. Don’t wait.