Here's what I can't figure out. My wife moved us from Portland to Florida because she hated to see all that stuff. Same issues, massive homelessness problem and very, very sad state of people. It is very different than the homelessness situation from ten years ago.

Why isn't it in Florida?

Housing costs are lower, but look at the price of housing even in smaller cities, they have doubled in just the last two years. If homelessness is really mainly a function of housing costs, is this problem coming quickly to Florida?

For example, gas prices are indeed cheaper. But add on those toll roads and suddenly the cost of a trip isn't so cheap. COL is not as straightforward as you would think in Florida.

Florida and other southern states have a much larger prison population per capita. Is that it, does everyone unwilling or unable to find housing just go to prison?

Is it heavy handed police that keep the problem away from the urban areas because tourism?

Are the drug cartels only interested in blue states?

Are the drugs here in Florida but just hidden differently?

If you read about drug use, just a few years ago the statistics would have shown higher use in Midwestern and Southern states, but the rampant degeneration of humanity is clearly more evident in blue liberal cities, and it's giving me an existential identity crisis.

I always felt like looking at the problems homelessness are facing holistically was a compassionate thing to do as a liberal, and I still do, but it hasn't made a difference since before the pandemic.