Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

dynomight.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 270 posts

Re: Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

#41

Post by woodruffw »

nostrebored wrote: post #24
cheriot wrote: post #9

We're a country of 350,000,000 people. Leaving 500,000 outside simply because municipalities don't want them around is inexcusable. Solution in two parts 1. Make it legal to build homes where people live (looking at you California, specifically LA, SF, SV) 2. Build dorm style shelters for anyone that would otherwise sleep outside There's complicating issues like not enough addiction treatment and mental health facili…

The problem is that people in the U.S. so often only see homelessness through the lens of where they live. Homelessness is a unique problem in each city. For example, the west coast has favorable weather and a history of being a destination for people after they are released from prisons or mental facilities. In cities on the east coast there is more leftist-narrative style homelessness: people who were depending on…

I will repeat this every time someone uses “favorable weather” to explain California’s barbaric treatment of its homeless: nobody wants to die of exposure. You can die of expose at temperatures well above what housed people consider “comfortable.” The number of homeless people who would rather stay outside in your “favorable climate” versus being afforded the basic dignity of a roof and room is a rounding error.

Re: Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

#42

Post by stillbourne »

I live in Denver, like any other metropolitan area there has always been a homeless population. What has been different is since 2016 there has been a staggering growth in the number of tents and so called tent cities. This isn't a problem just downtown either even if it is most visible there. The issue has expanded outside downtown and is filling in vacant properties in suburbia as well. Places like Aurora, almost every open space park, bike paths, bridges, everywhere you can fit a tent is turning into a homeless encampment. The worse part is I feel helpless, I'm making good money and barley able to pay rent. I feel powerless to help even if I could.

Re: Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

#43

Post by MomoXenosaga »

paxys wrote: post #22

> There are some exceptions. For one thing, despite being close to California, Nevada and some of the Montana-esque states saw big decreases in certain categories. Someone people would look at this and go wow, Nevada and the rest did a great job providing shelters and help to their homeless. I think a more realistic answer is that they just shipped them to California.

Homeless people aren't stupid. They go where they can live. Nobody wants to winter in North Dakota lol.

More money in panhandling too I bet.

Re: Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

#44

Post by 1986 »

nostrebored wrote: post #24
cheriot wrote: post #9

We're a country of 350,000,000 people. Leaving 500,000 outside simply because municipalities don't want them around is inexcusable. Solution in two parts 1. Make it legal to build homes where people live (looking at you California, specifically LA, SF, SV) 2. Build dorm style shelters for anyone that would otherwise sleep outside There's complicating issues like not enough addiction treatment and mental health facili…

The problem is that people in the U.S. so often only see homelessness through the lens of where they live. Homelessness is a unique problem in each city. For example, the west coast has favorable weather and a history of being a destination for people after they are released from prisons or mental facilities. In cities on the east coast there is more leftist-narrative style homelessness: people who were depending on…

> an oversupply of homeless shelters that people refuse to use (due to restrictions on substance abuse etc.)

There's a lot hiding in that "etc". Some other reasons people refuse to use (some) shelters:

- shelter is / feels unsafe due to a subset of the sheltered population

- shelter has a curfew that does not allow you to maintain your work schedule

- shelter won't let you bring your child or pet or stuff

Re: Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

#45

Post by [deleted] »

epistasis wrote: post #32
paxys wrote: post #22

> There are some exceptions. For one thing, despite being close to California, Nevada and some of the Montana-esque states saw big decreases in certain categories. Someone people would look at this and go wow, Nevada and the rest did a great job providing shelters and help to their homeless. I think a more realistic answer is that they just shipped them to California.

The data doesn't really seem to support this, and my personal experience doesn't either. Most homeless people in my Californian town were living nearby when they became homeless. And though I didn't go to high school here, friends who did recognize people they grew up among the homeless. There's a far bigger difference between California and its neighbors: housing costs and availability of housing even for those with…

[deleted]

Re: Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

#46

Post by jljljl »

mulmen wrote: post #35
cheriot wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What do you do if someone wants to sleep on the street? When all of the available shelters are full this is not a relevant question. > Where do you build these dorms? Near transit so people that can't afford a car can get around. There's not a shortage of underutilized land in west coast cities. > Are there barriers to living in these dorms? Sobriety requirements, job searching, etc? no, none of those situations ar…

> When all of the available shelters are full this is not a relevant question. It is relevant when we are talking about building more housing. Why build something if people won't use it? > Near transit so people that can't afford a car can get around. There's not a shortage of underutilized land in west coast cities. Underutilized land near transit ? What do you do about the NIMBYs? > no, none of those situations are…

> It is relevant when we are talking about building more housing. Why build something if people won't use it?

If the shelters are full, it's clear people are using them. If we start seeing vacancies in shelters, then we can worry about this.

Re: Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

#47

Post by AlexandrB »

jseliger wrote: post #6

There is mostly a housing crisis, with homelessness downstream of housing. I originally left this comment a few months ago, but: CA especially has been underbuilding housing for close to 50 years ( https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf-housing/ ) and now has a severe housing shortage, to the point where a parodic response, like "California will try absolutely anything to reduce homelessness, except build more housing"…

I don't buy it. In Toronto, there are new condo buildings going up seemingly on every block, but there are still 10,000 homeless[1].

The inconvenient truth is that building low-income housing is not very profitable and no entity driven by the profit motive wants to do it. The margins on luxury condos are much better.

[1] https://www.fredvictor.org/facts-about-homelessness-in-toron...

Re: Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

#48

Post by cheriot »

mulmen wrote: post #35
cheriot wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What do you do if someone wants to sleep on the street? When all of the available shelters are full this is not a relevant question. > Where do you build these dorms? Near transit so people that can't afford a car can get around. There's not a shortage of underutilized land in west coast cities. > Are there barriers to living in these dorms? Sobriety requirements, job searching, etc? no, none of those situations ar…

> When all of the available shelters are full this is not a relevant question. It is relevant when we are talking about building more housing. Why build something if people won't use it? > Near transit so people that can't afford a car can get around. There's not a shortage of underutilized land in west coast cities. Underutilized land near transit ? What do you do about the NIMBYs? > no, none of those situations are…

All of the shelters where I live are full. The article describes increasing chronic unsheltered populations in west coast cities. Do any of these have empty shelter beds? SF and LA do not.

"Underutilized land near transit? What do you do about the NIMBYs?"

Tell them to take a hike. The state needs to get more involved with objective rules so we don't have a game of each neighborhood screaming NIMBY.

> Of course, but do you want to live in a shelter with people doing drugs? Should there some that are drug friendly and some that aren't?

I don't know the answer to this. When we have enough shelters and people have a locked door to sleep behind this will probably be the next problem to solve.

> Actually providing public housing isn't simple though.

Shelters and public housing are different. Any kind of shelter has to be fully maintained with public funds because the people sleeping in them are broke.

There's a countries with large amounts of successful public housing. The theme is that it's well maintained so it's actually desirable for stable, normal people. Allowing a wider range of incomes to move in so that rent can cover operations and maintenance makes it less dependent on the whims of local pols.

Re: Breakdown of data on homeless populations across the U.S.

#49

Post by dynm »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #15

Excellent breakdown of data on homeless populations across the US. It could use a better title. This is worth looking at. It is not your usual opinion piece on the topic. It's all data and it's very good.

I went ahead and changed the title of the article itself, too. Thanks for the feedback.
Post reply on HN