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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Peapod · 61-69, F

I can't speak for L.A., but I have been to San Francisco. I was shocked at the number of homeless right there in some of the most beautiful spots. I had heard that in the late 60's, kids flocked there by the tens of thousands, thinking it would be quite the utopia with cheap or free housing and food. Sadly, a lot of those same kids became addicted to hard drugs and found out the hard way that the city simply could not provide for them. Many never left, given the temperate climate year round. Heartbreaking to see.

Nimbus · M

@Peapod It is sad.
I went there in '94 and never saw a single homeless person :(

Peapod · 61-69, F

@Nimbus, I was there in 2011. Maybe in the 90's, they had better housing. Most of the homeless I saw were seniors too. They were not young people.