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This is very interesting. I recently moved from San Francisco to Pittsburgh and I've noticed that there aren't as many homeless people in this city (Although t
by joeblau 10y ago
This is very interesting. I recently moved from San Francisco to Pittsburgh and I've noticed that there aren't as many homeless people in this city (Although to be fair; Coming from San Francisco, I feel you can say that about almost any major city in the US). Two things that do exist in Pittsburgh are a ton abandoned homes as well as a declining city population[1]. If the pattern of what is described in these articles are true, I'm wondering if some of the city residents are taking advantage of old buildings as dwellings?
What also throws another question my curiosity is that the city of Pittsburgh a number of tax abatement programs to spur on growth to rebuild many areas. I'm wondering if these programs will trigger a similar effects as the orders put in place in Seattle?
[1] - https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=kf7tgg1uo9ude_#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=population&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=place:4261000&ifdim=country&tstart=646977600000&tend=1404360000000&hl=en_US&dl=en_US&ind=false https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=kf7tgg1uo9ude_#...
- munificent 10y ago> Pittsburgh and I've noticed that there aren't as many homeless people in this city The sounds callous, but part of it is the climate. Winters in Seattle rarely get below freezing, which means the truly homeless can still survive here even when sleeping outside. Most Midwestern or Atlantic Seaboard cities are just too cold during the winter, so Seattle gets a disproportionate number of homeless.
- brianwawok 10y agoMan those homeless guys in Chicago.... they are tough. Few blankets and sleeping under the overpass. I think the worst few nights they pull most into shelters , but plenty sleep there when it is 20F outside. That said if I ever want to be homeless its SF or Hawaii.
- hueving 10y agoSF weather sucks compared to the south bay, socal, Hawaii, or even central cali. Weather is surprisingly not that important to homeless people.
- joeblau 10y agoI'm saying it more as a matter of a stark contrast between the city I just moved from and this one; not as a disregard for the serious condition facing the homeless population. I used to work for Amazon so I took quite a few trip from San Francisco to Seattle. I actually remember a guy stringing a hammock up between the corner of a fence the first night I was there. Even though the weather was amazing, that night; it really broke my heart. As for Pittsburgh, the winter here was definitely cold for me. I moved in January and the first day I got here it was 8℉ for the entire week. I can definitely see your point about how the climate can impact the number of homelessness. While I have seen a few people here; nothing I've seen in the U.S. really compares to San Francisco.
- Mtinie 10y agoTemperate weather plays a large role, too.