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Comment by sebastianmarr | Hacker News Reader

most homeless are mentally ill to some extent

I'd love to see some numbers on that.

I used to believe this based purely on having heard it all my life. But a friend of mine recently made an interesting point: he asked me what race homeless people are. My answer (at least here in LA) was that they're almost unanimously black or white. Never Asian. Never indian. Rarely Mexican.

I countered that it could be due to Asian and Mexican cultures being more culturally inclined to take care of their own, but I haven't fully convinced myself that that's the case.

My friend who made this point happens to be black, and his explanation was that having grown up in a black neighborhood, he noticed that black and white people have a sense of entitlement that other races don't often have, both for reasons that don't need explaining, and that that type of attitude begets unfortunate circumstances. I don't know whether I entirely agree with this point either, but it certainly makes you think.

Latinos make up the 2nd largest homeless demographic in Los Angeles.

It's very possible I'm off base here. I'm going purely on observation and anecdotal things. Do you happen to have any hard stats off hand?

Edit:

I looked it up. You're right in that Latinos hold the second highest percentage of homelessness at 33%, but when you consider population size, it sort of becomes irrelevant. Latinos make up 47% of the total population in LA. Blacks make up only 9% however they're a full 50% of the homeless population. This means that per capita, Latinos are 5 times less likely to be homeless than blacks.

> Blacks make up only 9% however they're a full 50% of the homeless population.

What brought us here, and how do we fix this?

I would venture to guess it has something to do with blacks having historically been isolated from the opportunities that other races have had, and that even though things have improved, we're still seeing the lasting effects of centuries of prohibitive behavior.

The SF Chron (check the earlier links) distinguishes between "chronic homeless" and "hardcore homeless". Chronic homelessness appears to be more of an economic condition related to poverty. "Hardcore homelessness" is more severe condition, a permanent and very harsh life on the street, often related to addiction and mental illness. You might not even notice the chronic homeless in your day to day life.

Apparently, San Francisco does stand out in the high incidence of hardcore homelessness. Supposedly SF and NY have the same number of "hardcore homeless", even though SF has about 1/10 the population (though any time you get into these ratios, you have to remember that SF is a small geographic region and population within much larger bay area - if you drew a 48 square mile border around an urban core in NY or LA, the numbers probably wouldn't look so dramatically different - my guess is that SF would still look bad, but not by anywhere near this order of magnitude).

Come to think of it, I've never met a homeless Asian on Indian before. I see plenty of Asians working their asses off in shitty conditions in chinatowns to feed their kids so they can go off to college some day. You're right, it does make you think.

You might be surprised to learn this:

"Yet there are homeless Asians. Isabelle Hsu reports in the Pacific News Service that in San Francisco alone there are approximately 6,000 plus people living in the streets. She quickly adds that this is a very rough estimate. Ed Jew (the only Chinese American on Mayor Gavin Newsom’s committee to end chronic homelessness) explains that the official estimate of Asian homelessness is probably low because of cultural sensitivities. It is also a matter of saving face: homeless Asians refuse to go to shelters and admit to their homelessness."

[1] http://erwinsdeleon.blogspot.com/2008/07/homeless-asians.htm...

There's a heap in tenderloin and heading down 6th into soma, they get dragged into the shitty sweat shops and fence canned food for cash.

When you see somebody who looks deshevalled, what leads you to decide that they're homeless?

Stereotypes about their ethnicity will probably be a a factor.

Wnadering around skid row here in Los Angeles, I can certainly tell you I've never seen an Asian person pitching a sidewalk tent.

There is some truth to this: "According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20 to 25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness."[1]

Mental disorders prevent people from carrying out essential aspects of daily life, such as self-care, household management and interpersonal relationships. Homeless people with mental disorders remain homeless for longer and have less contact with family and friends. Any type of help from friends and family can be misinterpreted and further pushed towards the cycle of poverty.

[1]http://tinyurl.com/bwg38ab - National Coalition of Homelessness, July 2009

Yes, but where they ill when they first got homeless?

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