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I just returned from a 10 day vacation in Switzerland. And I am not making this up, I didn't see a single homeless person. Can anyone enlighten why there are so

by dmode 9y ago

I just returned from a 10 day vacation in Switzerland. And I am not making this up, I didn't see a single homeless person. Can anyone enlighten why there are so few homeless folks in Europe compared to the US ?

olfox 9y ago
Switzerland has an exceptionally low rate due to a couple of reasons pretty specific to them. In general, Europe seems worse off than the US. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_population https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeles...
- oblio 9y ago
  Those numbers don't really support your claim...
  - olfox 9y ago
    There's around twice as many european countries with a lower percentage of homelessness than the US on that list compared to those with higher. Though, those where to a larger degree more populated. You could probably cut it how you want it, but framing it as Europe having lower homelessness is too simplistic and that was my main point.
    - oblio 9y ago
      Many of those countries have 1/3 to 1/4 of the US GDP per capita. That has to count for something... ;)
- jaclaz 9y ago
  While Switzerland is one of the countries with lower amount of homeless people, most of EU is much lower than - say - the UK (in Brexit times this might be interesting), but this kind of numbers may well (and actually are) very debatable because of different ways the "homelessness" is calculated. Also you have to consider how in continental Europe there is an ethnic group, the Romanis (more commonly called gypsies) that traditionally move across the various countries and that may be counted one way (homeless) or the other (or not counted at all). And comparng a single smallish country with the whole US makes little sense anyway, usually homelessness (like in this case talking of Seattle) is concentrated in very limited areas (usually in or around large cities) where the rest of the country is unaffected.
nairboon 9y ago
There is basically a right to housing in Switzerland, so technically there are no homeless citizens. Although, there are some homeless people, they live that way mostly by choice, since they could request an apartment at anytime.

by dmode 9y ago

olfox 9y ago

Switzerland has an exceptionally low rate due to a couple of reasons pretty specific to them. In general, Europe seems worse off than the US. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_population https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeles...

oblio 9y ago
Those numbers don't really support your claim...
- olfox 9y ago
  There's around twice as many european countries with a lower percentage of homelessness than the US on that list compared to those with higher. Though, those where to a larger degree more populated. You could probably cut it how you want it, but framing it as Europe having lower homelessness is too simplistic and that was my main point.
  - oblio 9y ago
    Many of those countries have 1/3 to 1/4 of the US GDP per capita. That has to count for something... ;)
jaclaz 9y ago
While Switzerland is one of the countries with lower amount of homeless people, most of EU is much lower than - say - the UK (in Brexit times this might be interesting), but this kind of numbers may well (and actually are) very debatable because of different ways the "homelessness" is calculated. Also you have to consider how in continental Europe there is an ethnic group, the Romanis (more commonly called gypsies) that traditionally move across the various countries and that may be counted one way (homeless) or the other (or not counted at all). And comparng a single smallish country with the whole US makes little sense anyway, usually homelessness (like in this case talking of Seattle) is concentrated in very limited areas (usually in or around large cities) where the rest of the country is unaffected.

nairboon 9y ago

There is basically a right to housing in Switzerland, so technically there are no homeless citizens. Although, there are some homeless people, they live that way mostly by choice, since they could request an apartment at anytime.