Hacker News Reader

Comment by mdorazio | Hacker News Reader

It's not quite that simple. The West Coast has seen a huge influx of homeless people (ex. [1] - 12% YoY increase in LA) while the nation overall has seen a drop [2]. If your homeless population is steady or falling it's easier to build enough services for them than if thousands more arrive every year. Also, I agree that more shelters and services need to be built, but it would be nice if the Federal government pitched in since it's pretty obvious we're just absorbing the homeless problems from other states.

[1] https://la.curbed.com/2019/6/4/18652755/2019-homeless-count-...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_Sta...

View on HN

> The West Coast has seen a huge influx of homeless people

Your source shows an INCREASE of homeless people, but not necessarily an INFLUX, i.e. it's not clear whether the newly homeless are in fact "arriving" (from out of state) or have been prior residents who lost their shelter.

Anecdotally, I don't think I've ever met somebody who had a PLAN to move to California to be homeless there. But I've met a number of people who moved to California with limited financial resources and precarious employment prospects, and subsequently became homeless.

Actually, rehab's are importing the homeless into California. John Oliver did a show on it.

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/17/are-drug-rehab-centers...

The LA homeless survey does track where people lived when they became homeless. In 2019, the number who became homeless outside of CA is 20% [1]. AFAIK, they don't release raw data so we can segment by newly homeless, but in 2018, this same figure was 14% [2].

Seattle / King County's survey asks a similar question and it's just 5% [3]. Conservative media up here likes to claim that homeless immigration is a significant problem (it isn't), but it seems like LA is facing a different challenge.

1 - https://www.lahsa.org/documents?id=3437-2019-greater-los-ang...

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

3 - http://allhomekc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Updated-7.11...

The Seattle king county survey also found out that 80% of those homeless lived in pioneer square before becoming homeless. Definitely fishy if you know the city.

AFAIK, the Seattle / King County survey did not ask which neighborhood or zip code they lived in. The questions are listed on the survey PDF I linked earlier.

Do you have a source? Closest I can find is from 2016, and it's 25% of in-county zip codes equalling Pioneer Square, not 80% of all:

"The records show that more than 8,000 clients [of any homeless/housing services tracked by All Home] listed their last ZIP code as 98104, which covers Pioneer Square and downtown. That’s about 25 percent of all clients who gave King County ZIP codes. Putnam says clients sometimes list ZIP codes for the shelters where they last stayed or the neighborhood where they’d been seeking services."

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/king-coun...

The west coast has always been a popular destination for people with big dreams but perhaps without much means. It isn’t really weird that homeless are just as likely to be transplants as non homeless residents.

I know I’ve read how Las Vegas and places in Texas were giving their homeless one way tickets to cities in California.

California's also exporting their homeless problems.

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

Correction: we're sending a lot of the homeless back to the cities they came from.

(Texas used to brag about shipping their homeless problem to LA.)

California has a big net-influx of homeless because of both relatively generous legal environment and state services (even if there is a shelter crisis) and favorable weather.

Yes, California is trying to send some of the homeless back to where they come from, to little avail.

I'd be surprised if any states didn't do that. Anyone shouldering the cost providing for you is typically thrilled to buy you a one way ticket anywhere you'd like to go.

It's the other way round.

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

CA is trying to send some people back and that's being spun as "exporting".

Crazy.

Other places send homeless to California. California sends them back.

Not many advantages to being homeless, but maybe cost of travel isn't one of them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com