5 ms·

650k out of 340M is an astonishing number. That's almost one in 500 people who don't have a place to call home in the richest country in the world. There were m

by habosa 3y ago

650k out of 340M is an astonishing number. That's almost one in 500 people who don't have a place to call home in the richest country in the world. There were more than 500 people in my high school class ... Anything that affects 650k people has more than one cause, but we have mountains of evidence to show us the main cause: housing is too expensive. We don't build enough housing and the housing we do build is far too expensive. We then give homeowners and real estate developers so many tax breaks, loans, and other incentives such that America is completely addicted to housing-as-investment and the ever-rising price of a roof over one's head. It makes me ashamed to live here. It makes me ashamed to have a home of my own. If you're in the Bay Area and you want to help locally, I can personally recommend Larkin Street Youth Services as an excellent organization: https://larkinstreetyouth.org/ https://larkinstreetyouth.org/

medvezhenok 3y ago
On the contrary, the prevalence of mental illness and other issues in the population is much higher than 1 in 500 (probably 10x that rate, at least), so while you think this number is high, I don't think it's crazy at all. Many of these people would probably have been forcibly institutionalized in the past (which some people think is better, and others think is worse). If we forcibly institutionalized the homeless, we would have zero homelessness overnight (but would that necessarily be better?). So judging simply from the numbers can be misleading. However, the trend of homelessness going up 12% year over year is a real issue, though the proper comparison point would probably be 2019 since there has been a lot of government intervention to artificially lower homelessness over the past couple of years (which might be long-term unsustainable given the budget deficits).
- habosa 3y ago
  I think you’re making two assumptions that I doubt. 1) That people with mental illness cannot keep themselves housed assuming housing is available and affordable. 2) That the seemingly high prevalence of mental illness is a cause of homelessness, rather than a symptom. I don’t think either of those is entirely true.
keybored 3y ago
Richest country in the world doesn’t mean much in this context if there is high inequality.

by habosa 3y ago

medvezhenok 3y ago

On the contrary, the prevalence of mental illness and other issues in the population is much higher than 1 in 500 (probably 10x that rate, at least), so while you think this number is high, I don't think it's crazy at all. Many of these people would probably have been forcibly institutionalized in the past (which some people think is better, and others think is worse). If we forcibly institutionalized the homeless, we would have zero homelessness overnight (but would that necessarily be better?). So judging simply from the numbers can be misleading. However, the trend of homelessness going up 12% year over year is a real issue, though the proper comparison point would probably be 2019 since there has been a lot of government intervention to artificially lower homelessness over the past couple of years (which might be long-term unsustainable given the budget deficits).

habosa 3y ago
I think you’re making two assumptions that I doubt. 1) That people with mental illness cannot keep themselves housed assuming housing is available and affordable. 2) That the seemingly high prevalence of mental illness is a cause of homelessness, rather than a symptom. I don’t think either of those is entirely true.

keybored 3y ago

Richest country in the world doesn’t mean much in this context if there is high inequality.