The burden is falling on fair-weather states as the down-and-out from cold states find their way to coastal states to avoid freezing to death. There are plenty of empty houses in the rust belt. We need to find a way to get the homeless into those.
Part of the reason why homelessness is so visible in places like Oakland because the governing body in cali cities tend to decriminalize homelessness. I've also known homeless in east coast go down to the southern states during the winter... only to come back up north during the summer.
We also need to consider the fact that homelessness is multi-facted. There are folks who are employed but still gets classified as homeless due to high CoL.
That's what Jesus would do. The evangelicals seem to skip reading the full New Testament, as they arrest and harass homeless for being homeless.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-10-18-me-622-st...
https://www.sidmartinbio.org/how-were-the-okies-treated-when...
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-bumblockade/
Does the Pacific Coast want to reinstitute “bum blockades”?
Past Pacific Coast strategies for managing the unwanted included offering a reward for scalps of the unwanted, like the State of California had implemented for First Nations peoples in the 1850s…
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/8/14/567667/-
The Pacific Coast States in the US era have made some really bad missteps in addressing problems like this over the years. May just be a case of taking the “good” (weather) with the “bad” US citizens (that just aren’t as socially or economically desirable). The homeless/van life are living a lifestyle that, for hundreds of years prior to the Anglos/RR, was perfectly acceptable in that/your part of the country. Not an easy problem to address.
In the past, these types of surveys are filled with methodology errors.
A Seattle based survey I see regurgitated often simply asked where their LAST place of residence before becoming homeless was, and it included stays in shelters as residence... So essentially anyone who had been there more than a few months was counted.
>Page 18 https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/FINAL-PIT-R...
that doesn't seem to refute the parent comment at all.
This is a logical conclusion, but one that isn't compatible with one of the fundamental tenants of US culture: liberty. You could offer a free house to a homeless person in the Rust Belt, and even pay them to live there, but would they want that? We will not force the homeless from where they want to be.
As well, such a solution would end up raising the ire of homeowners, who see costal homeless as strictly Not Their Problem. Especially costal homeless who are Black and Latino.