Hacker News Reader

Comment by zacharycohn | Hacker News Reader

This is largely a myth. It's hard to get exact numbers, but from a recent Seattle Times research project...:

"To sum it up: There are homeless people who migrate — somewhere around 15 to 20 percent of all homeless people — but there aren’t many who migrate far beyond their home state and region. While research hasn’t definitively answered the question of how many homeless people migrate [here from outside Washington State] just to get help, we know that in King County, 3 percent said they did."

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/do-homele...

View on HN

I would argue that this does happen in SF specifically. Being a magnet for people with no leg to stand on (whether because of a lack of resources, prejudice, etc.) is San Francisco's whole thing, and has been since the 60s. They wrote songs about it!

But okay, in the case of Seattle and Vancouver, maybe the arrivals are not from the opposite side of the country, but there still is a constant influx of people from the region. There are huge native communities in both Washington state and British Columbia, and they're falling apart in about the same way as the rust belt. There's no support system in those small towns with enough resources to help the people who are worst-off, so they have to leave and go somewhere else.

Look closely at the questions those surveys are asking. "Where were you living at the time you most recently became homeless" isn't the right question as there are temporary housing options (crashing with a friend, living in a vehicle) under which many do not consider themselves homeless.

From your own link, only 25% were born / grew up in King county.

Haven't checked your link, but I know several of the recurring studies for Seattle area ask "where was your last residence" or something. If you dig deeper, a lot of the "locals" are "local" because their last residence was the King County Jail.

Yes, and if the article is to be believed, they all lived in pioneer square before becoming homeless.

A myth myth, I guess.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com