In your opinion why are there so many homeless people in LA and San Francisco ?

In Alameda County, the number of homeless residents jumped 43 percent over the past two years. In Orange County, that number was 42 percent. Kern County volunteers surveying the region’s homeless population found a 50 percent increase over 2018. San Francisco notched a 17 percent increase since 2017.

And on Tuesday, Los Angeles officials released the results of their most recent count: Homelessness was up by 12 percent over last year in the county and up 16 percent in the City of Los Angeles.

That puts L.A. County’s homeless population at 58,936 and the city’s at 36,300.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/us/los-angeles-homeless-population.html

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cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

The price of rents have increased so much, wondering how illegal population has impacted those costs.

Nimbus · M

@cherokeepatti Good point Patti.

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@Nimbus A man from Guatemala was selling real estate. He told me that under Obama there was a law passed back then that banks couldn’t make loans to anyone who didn’t have a Social Security number. So the people who might have pooled their money to buy a home were left to rent a home or apartment. The prices of rentals increased a great deal after that, including here. We have a homeless population because of the rent prices but there are groups helping people including Veterans find an affordable place to live.

Nimbus · M

@cherokeepatti I see.
Maybe there should be a cap on prices for homes so that those on low incomes CAN afford them.

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@Nimbus Part of the problem is zoning laws. At one time the USA had a lot of boarding room homes. A single person could rent a room with a shared bathroom, no need to rent an entire apartment. The rent was affordable. Most were outlawed by city councils so that new upscale housing or condos could be built. Also most cities have restrictions on tiny homes being built. There should be something done about this. Small families can live in those, it’s better than being homeless and the price of utilities to heat or a/c them would be much lower than a regular size house or apartment.

Nimbus · M

@cherokeepatti I see.

We have homes like that where facilities are shared.