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Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

California currently has about 25% of America's homeless.

Some additional stats on homelessness and California:

https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2018/05/california-...

imo chronic homelessness is a separate problem that mainly involves the lack of funding for mental health institutions at a federal level. If I remember correctly, 80% of homeless people are no longer homeless after 6 months. The remaining 20% either suffer from mental health issues, drugs, or both. It's a federal problem since all the states just want to play hot potato with the chronically homeless, instead of actually trying to solve it

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/...

And this explains the California statistics how? California just churns out ridiculous numbers of crazy people? Is that the suggestion?

I would think California attracts homeless from outside of California at least due to the temperate weather.

The vast majority of homeless in California lived here before they became homeless.

I've suggested that myself. It's a factor I'm familiar with.

I have zero reason to believe that this fully accounts for one of the 50 states being home to one out of every four homeless Americans.

> I have zero reason to believe that this fully accounts for one of the 50 states being home to one out of every four homeless Americans.

"One of 50 states" is a misleading statistic, given that states are nowhere near equal in population and California is the largest.

California is home to one out of every eight Americans, has good weather, and has some cities with an infamously high cost of housing. What fraction of the homeless population would you expect it to have?

It ain’t called the land of fruits and nuts for nothing.

Actors are considered eccentric and it attracts a lot of gay people.

Please produce citations showing that California churns out crazy people at such high rates that we should apparently consider shutting the entire state down as a human health hazard.

It was just a joke. Didn’t mean to argue with you. I agree with what you’ve been saying here.

Ah. OK.

Other states also ship them here enmass. Notably places like Nevada and Arizona. It both helps and exacerbates the issue for CA, when CA has better infrastructure for the homeless compared to our neighboring states. As noted in the article, CA does the same thing but it’s just not as skilled as places like NY at playing hot potato with the mentally ill homeless

California is the most populous state in the US. With 39.5 million people, it has quite a lead on the number two state of Texas at 28 million. [1]

Surveys typically suggest that only about 10 percent of the homeless in California come from elsewhere. This leaves 90 percent of them as Californians who had a home there at one time.

Thanks in part to the lovely weather, California has the most unsheltered homeless. IIRC, it also has the most chronic homeless.

I spent nearly six years homeless, most of it in California. I left the state to get back into housing someplace cheaper.

I strongly suspect that the insane California housing prices are a major factor here, much more so than mental health issues or addiction. For every 100 poor families on the West Coast, there are only 30 affordable homes. [2]

California has about 8.5% of the US population. There is something very wrong that it has 25% of the homeless population.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territori...

[2] https://www.geekwire.com/2018/every-100-families-living-pove...

> California has about 8.5% of the US population.

I think you misread the line for California in your footnoted reference #1, which shows it at 12.14%.

> I strongly suspect that the insane California housing prices are a major factor here

Only if California is reduced to the touristy hollywood-esque definition of LA + SF.

Inland there are tons of affordable towns and even dying towns. A while back there was even a town selling itself on eBay (and was unsuccessful at that).

"This leaves 90 percent of them as Californians who had a home there at one time."

Sounds made up. Source?

can you give me the source of the homelessness survey? I’ve never heard of it and it’s not mentioned in your links. also did they differentiate between non-chronic and chronic homeless people? If that’s true for all chronic homelsss people then it changes story. It’s possible that we just produce a lot of mentally ill people here since CA is one of the largest states.

Also referring to the geek wire article, low income doesn’t necessarily mean homeless, especially chronically homeless. CA just tends to help them move to low income housing in cheaper parts of the state

Cities across the country survey their homeless populations in January, at least every two years. You can usually Google "city homeless count/survey" to get the reports.

For example, San Francisco: http://hsh.sfgov.org/research-reports/san-francisco-homeless...

Los Angeles: https://www.lahsa.org/documents?id=2059-2018-greater-los-ang...

According to the 2017 SF survey, 10% of homeless were out of state when they most recently became homeless. According to the 2018 LA survey, 14% were out of state.

I am not sure if you should entirely trust these numbers, or if they are asking exactly the right question---everyone involved knows that there's a right answer and a wrong answer to the question---but it's the best we have.

If it's helpful 8.5% of all L.A county residents have lived in the county less than a year which you can contrast that to the 7% of homeless that have been here less than a year.

And according to a UCLA study, "65% of unsheltered homeless individuals have lived in the county for more than 20 years." That means 35% have been here less than 20 years.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-anderson-forecast...

And how many of the homeless were born in the county? I suspect it's a very low considering so many residents in the county of L.A. aren't native born.

There's a funny advertisement for the Grinch movie here in L.A. which rings true. The line says, something like, "My favorite time of year is Christmas, when everyone goes back to where they came from."

I don't have a citation for a specific survey. It's a figure I recall seeing in various articles.

I think a much more likely explanation than "California just churns out crazy people at a phenomenal rate" is "There's probably a connection between the insane housing prices and the crazy high levels of homelessness there."

Agreeing with cliches and analogies:

The deeper we look, the more we realize everything is connected.

Homelessness is societal cancer. There isn't one cause, one cure. It's a complex adaptive system that must be treated as a whole.

Mental health, addiction, and homelessness is a vicious cycle.

1. I belive I'm Shadow banned, but who cares, and here goes. (There's a positive side to being banned on HN, but that's another story.)

2. If anyone hears me, yes, it would be great if all homeless had access to good Psychiatric help. And what's help good these days?

3. The chronic homeless I know just want a legal place to poop, and pitch a tent.

4. Most aren't seriously mentally ill; just the end result of a careless, brutal economic system. A system that fails many of us, especially the ones without a stable support system. What's that support system? Usually a caring family member. That caring family member that is always left out of the "I'm a winner" speech.

5. Rich boys can find themselves in college, and the job market.

6. Poor boys have one, or two chances.

7. A mental/physical hiccup can bring a poor boy down quick.

8. I don't want to debate, but we need areas of land that people who don't fit in can camp. We need it immediately.

9. Counties are using that "break on the glass theory" to harass poor souls to suicide, and worse. Worse is deficating on your streets? You don't like it, nor do I, but where are they suspose to relieve themselfs?

10. We need free plots of land, and bathrooms for the homeless. I've never heard a homeless person ask for much. My buddies just want to legal place to sleep, and a legal place to relive themselfs.

11. We are currently living in a society where everything is basically illegial. 100 years ago most people were basically homeless, but they had hope, and weren't harassed, vilified for not fitting in. Those days are gone, and we wonder why they do drugs?

Well, I can see your comment (mods - if this is inappropriate I apologise/feel free to delete)

California has about 12% of America's population. Given how amenable the weather is for living outside of a house (little snow, rain, or cold weather in most population centers), I don't think a rate 2x the national average is unexpected. Regardless of the state's housing crunch.

My back of the napkin, middle of the night calculations put it at 8.5% (which I used in some other comment in this discussion). Googling by light of day suggests 12% is the correct figure.

I've studied this problem space a fair amount. I agree that the weather is a factor. But I also think the housing issues are another major factor.

At this point, I'm tired of arguing it. I run into this same argument over and over on Hacker News -- that the insane housing prices and shortages of affordable housing in California have no bearing whatsoever on the high rates of homelessness there. I continue to be flabbergasted by what looks to me like a ridiculous claim on the face of it.

So, I think I'm done here for now and it's time for me to go do other things.

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