Posted on 12/17/2018 9:01:27 AM PST by yesthatjallen
Homelessness in the U.S. increased in 2018 for the second straight year after being in decline for 7 years previously, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The small 0.3 percent increase from last year comes as the economy is booming and unemployment is at its lowest point in decades.
The homelessness rate is included in an annual report given to Congress Monday conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
HUD secretary Ben Carson called the rise in homelessness last year relatively muted, saying that for it “to be relatively flat is actually pretty good” given the rise in real estate prices.
The report separates homeless by “sheltered” and “unsheltered.”
The “unsheltered” homeless population has increased steadily since 2015, while the “sheltered” population has decreased since 2014.
Advocates say the lack of affordable housing, particularly in metropolitan settings, is a leading factor in homelessness.
“There is a critical shortage of affordable rental housing in every jurisdiction across the country,” Barbara Poppe, the former executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, told the Journal.
Nearly one quarter of the country’s entire homeless population lives in New York City or Los Angeles as both cities grapple with increasing rents prices. Average rent in Los Angeles has increased 35 percent since 2012 and 20 percent in New York, according to the Journal.
There were no homeless until Ronald Reagan..,
It’ll continue to rise simply because of the millennial generation. The majority of them want everything for nothing yet are incapable doing anything. Homelessness is inevitable.
Absolute lie. How is it we have more than 7 million jobs going unfilled? Homelessness increases mainly in places that make it advantageous like Seattle, SF and Dallas. A good many of those who are included in that number are drug addicts and habitual criminals who live outside of main stream society.
Unsurprisingly, New York City, and Los Angeles make up 25% of that homeless population. The other factor is large increases in housing costs for those 2 locales. Rent in L.A. has risen 35% since 2012, and NYC 20%. Once you become homeless it becomes very hard to get out of homelessness without help. According to the article at any rate, but they fail to say where the remaining 75% occur, and without a doubt it is in cities that are run by Democrats. We know that to be the case because Democrats control the vast majority of large cities in America.
Mayors of the 50 largest cities in America are controlled by: Democrat: 34 (68%), Republican: 13 (26%), Independent: 3 (6%). Here is a list of those 50 largest cities, their mayors, and the mayor's party affiliation.
Of course! And it’ll keep increasing up to the 2020 election! It’s like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west with these liberals. Year in and year out.
We need some demographics.
I suspect they are trying to say that the Trump-era did this increase, but if you go and look around (particularly in areas like Baltimore, Atlanta, and eastern cities)...you can find one real driver over the past five years....heroin/opioid use. Once you get a cop-raid...landlords have zero interest in having you in their property. You get dumped. Some relatives might be stupid enough to take you in.
You can find the same problem driving homelessness in rural areas now. That wasn’t true a decade ago.
If i'm homeless but living with friends or say a lady on welfare, am I really homeless....or is "homeless" what I put on my welfare application.
Every time a Republican is elected, the homeless numbers miraculously rise.
If this is too much for them, then let them move to San Fransicko where they can $#*+ in the street.
“The majority of them want everything for nothing yet are incapable doing anything.”
-
Give it a rest——there are good and bad in ALL generations.
.
I am not totally buying the opioid argument.
Not that it is not a serious problem.
Mainly because much of the problem was due to everyday people, not drug abusers, getting hooked.
But drugs like crack and meth have been around since the 8o’s.
As well as very potent marijuana.
Yea, right, 8 years of economic nothingness that was Obama, and not 1 mention of homelessness. but 2 years into the greatest economic expansion i the last 20 years at least, and homelessness is growing??
BS
No I won’t give it a rest.. this group and I didn’t say all of them are pathetic. There’s good and bad everything so that’s a lost point to argue.
This particular group has no work ethic at all and I hear that from folks trying to hire young folks in all types of jobs from construction to engineering. They can’t find young people that will work when they show up let alone showing up. I got an earful at my auto insurance company about how they can’t find good young people to hire, they quit after a week and they can’t communicate or carry on a conversation and then I hear about how the local restaurants are hurting for good people etc so it ain’t just me.
The majority of the problem is bad parenting and useless schools systems.
Homeless Freeper checking in. I just had (another) heart attack and was lucky to find a shelter where I can stay. I’m stuck in a backwater town in Northern California.
BUMS
What BS...homelessness didn’t exist when Obama was president?!?!?!?!?
Homelessness with 3.7% unemployment?
Fake news.
I live on the outskirts of a small town in the KY mountains. 12K population and they are experiencing homeless/vagrancy issues in the last couple of years. Mainly it stems from the opioids epidemic when their families eventually kick them out after coming to the end of their rope in dealing with the theft, drama and emotional and physical abuse.
The current local government has ignored the issue outright. I mean they do nothing to fight the vagrancy, people sleeping under bridges, on top of local businesses and in the alleyways. Used needles along the streets and in playgrounds. They sleep in the city parking lot in front of city hall and the police station. The police are getting reports a couple times a week of people hearing noises under their homes at night and they come out and find where the homeless opened access doors and crawled under houses out of the cold. I know of one local businessman who has caught two in his business prowling. One took off running upon seeing a Glock 19 in hand topping the stairs and the other just froze. He was escorted out with the warning, next time you won’t walk out.
A new mayor is about to take office and the residents of the town have had enough and are furious and demanding action while you have a very small but vocal minority of bleeding hearts wailing we need a homeless shelter, we need a soup kitchen, we need need exchange program, we need to send them to rehab. You can’t get it through their heads if you give them food, housing and needles they will never leave and more will come and that rehab is a waste of resources until the junkie has hit bottom and really wants help.
Jailing them is not possible because of over crowding and there isn’t funds for a new jail. I don’t know how this is going to shake out but I do expect these peaceful citizens who are paying the bills,following the law, tolerating the filth, the needles, the thefts and vandalism are about at the end of their patience with these junkies and I look for them to finally pop a cap on them. To quote one, we want our town back, we ain’t going to take this crap much longer!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.