Free Republic

According to a Pew Charitable Trusts study, rising rental prices are directly linked to an increase in homelessness in the United States.As Statista's Ann Fleck reports, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s homelessness data and Apartment List rent data from 2017 and 2022 shows that of the six metro areas where homelessness increased the most, rents had also risen faster than the national average.These were Sacramento, Fresno, Raleigh, Phoenix, Austin and Tucson.You will find more infographics at StatistaMeanwhile, four areas that saw declines in homelessness also saw below-average increases in their median rents.The writers of the report explain:“There...

The Supreme Court decided on Friday that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, even in West Coast areas where shelter space is lacking. The case is the most significant to come before the high court in decades on the issue and comes as a rising number of people in the US are without a permanent place to live. In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the high court reversed a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court that found outdoor sleeping bans amount to cruel and unusual punishment. The majority found that the 8th Amendment prohibition does...

Over the past three years, millions of migrants have come pouring into this country looking for a better life. They were promised that things would be so much better once they got here, but for so many of them that has turned out to be not true at all. There just aren’t enough resources to care for the vast number of migrants that are arriving, and as a result many quickly find themselves homeless. It is a tragedy of monumental proportions, and it is getting worse with each passing day. Just look at what is happening to the city of...

Jarun Laws lived in his car in a restaurant parking lot near downtown Denver. He worked there as a cook until 2020, making about $400 a month. That was barely enough to cover his car payments and child support — and not even close to what he would need for rent. The 51-year-old occasionally spent part of his paycheck on weekend stays at a cheap hotel, where he could spend time with his children. He struggled to afford food, clothes, and medicine — and he had been experiencing homelessness for nearly a decade. That changed when Laws enrolled in The...

The battle against homelessness in the Portland, Oregon, area reportedly came with a high cost in 2023, with most of the money going to temporary shelter, services, and housing placement. ECOnorthwest’s analysis found in the counties of Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas, “local governments and nonprofits” shelled out $531 million for homeless interventions, Fox News reported on Thursday. “The huge increase was driven in part by nearly $90 million in federal pandemic relief funds, as well as a regional homeless tax approved by voters in 2020, the report shows,” the outlet said.

A disabled Canadian man is now celebrating his “deathaversary” after escaping being euthanized by his government over his crushing debts. Amir Farsoud was due to be euthanized by the Canadian government’s “assisted suicide” program because he was struggling to pay off his financial debts. Farsoud said he was booked into to be killed under Canada’s “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID) law after being faced with the grim choice of death or homelessness. However, just before he was scheduled to be euthanized, people raised enough money to improve his financial situation and he narrowly avoided death. A year and a half...

California Governor Gavin Newsom was called out by a reporter after he continued to dodge questions about blowing the state's $24 billion spending on the homeless. The Golden State's budget deficit is at least $45 billion, a shortfall so large it prompted Newsom to propose painful spending cuts impacting immigrants, kindergarteners and low-income parents seeking child care in a state often lauded for having the world's fifth-largest economy. California spent $24 billion tackling homelessness over five years but didn't track if the money was helping the state's growing number of unhoused people, a damning report says.

As the U.S. economy slows down, those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest. Homelessness is surging, the number of Americans living in poverty is rising, and more Americans are considered to be among “the working poor” than ever before. Unfortunately, we are witnessing a historic economic shift right now, and economic conditions are only going to get even more harsh during the months ahead. Needless to say, that is really bad news for all of us. According to a report from Harvard University, approximately 650,000 Americans were homeless at some point last year....

“We’re talking about sleeping … that is a basic function,” said the nation’s first Black female justice. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued that it is “cruel and unusual” to punish unhoused individuals for sleeping in public spaces. “We’re talking about sleeping … that is a basic function,” Justice Jackson said during Monday’s oral arguments in a case that could result in the criminalization of homelessness. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard more than two hours of arguments in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson. The justices listened to both sides of the case to determine whether...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration lost track of the $24 billion in taxpayer funds it spent over the past five years in an attempt to curb the state’s homelessness crisis, an audit has found. The California State Auditor’s report, released on April 9, detailed multiple “gaps” in accountability in regards to how the money was allocated during the 2018-2023 fiscal years. Lead auditor Grant Parks said the state “has not collected sufficient data” to prove that the billions of dollars improved the situation.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this month in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which focuses on whether a local government can make it a crime to live outside when adequate shelter is not available. This case has resulted in an inaccurate and harmful framing of homelessness by suggesting that there are only two potential outcomes: Either arrest those who are unhoused or homelessness will become an inevitable and permanent fixture of the urban landscape. But there is a third path: providing subsidized housing with services to people experiencing homelessness. Too often, policymakers ignore the obvious solution to homelessness —...

Joe Biden has been a terrible president — the worst in American history — but that does not mean that his term hasn’t had its share of winners. While the vast majority of Americans have suffered under Joe Biden, some segments of American society have benefitted. Illegal Aliens The top of Biden’s winner list has to be illegal aliens. As the saying goes, what you promote, you get more of. Joe Biden and his surrogates have actively promoted the arrival of more than 7–8 million new illegal aliens since his inauguration, when he overrode Donald Trump–era policies and instituted new...

On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) signed a bill into law that bans homeless encampments in the state of Florida.

Once upon a time, America was such a beautiful place. As a nation, we are blessed with great natural beauty, and the shiny, clean cities that we constructed from coast to coast were once the envy of the entire world. But now many of the most beautiful places in America have literally been turned into open toilets. Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. Decades ago, California beaches were so spectacular that tourists would come from all over the world to experience them. But now the beaches in one section of southern California resemble “a...

A San Francisco restaurant chain recently closed its last two remaining locations after 40 years of operation, with the owner citing the city's economic challenges and homelessness. "COVID has been a disease for us, let's put it that way, so it's been difficult, and we tried opening six or eight stores in the beginning in 2021, and it was ugly," Lee's Diner founder and owner Lee Quan told the local ABC 7 in a report published Wednesday. "There was just nobody around—we can't do business." Quan, whose family-owned chain had 16 locations at its height, said after the pandemic, people...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has come up with an unusual solution for solving Florida's homeless problem: putting people in camps. Although the idea may sound authoritarian or reminiscent of the power-crazed lunacy exhibited during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, it may actually be a viable solution. The Tampa Bay Times reports that DeSantis is considering approving legislation that would help move homeless people off the streets and place them in specialized camps where they can enjoy access to various services. However, DeSantis confirmed at a news conference in Miami Beach on Monday that the idea was still very much a "work...

How can anyone out there possibly believe that the U.S. economy is doing well? As you will see below, the number of homeless Americans has risen to the highest level ever recorded, and large companies all over the country are laying off workers in droves. As I have discussed previously, the number of Americans that were laid off in 2023 jumped 98 percent compared to the year before, and now during the first month of 2024 it feels like we are being hit by a tsunami of layoffs. It literally seems like someone has turned a fire hose on, but...

A woman may have unknowingly passed the ghost of a supposed ancient Hawaiian warrior while running through a rainforest. Kay Borleis was running the Hawaiian Ultra Running Team’s Trail 100-Mile Endurance Run on the Honolulu Mauka trails in Oahu in January 2019 when she had the spooky encounter. 'To this day, we still don’t know what it was,' said Borleis, a senior art director, in a blog post. The race, known as HURT 100, is a 20-mile loop through the rainforests that participants run five times. Borelis' friend Cassie was running the fourth lap with her when Cassie snapped the...

On Thursday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News,” NBC News Correspondent Stephanie Gosk reported on homelessness among students in Los Angeles and stated that increases in the cost of living “and a migrant crisis” are two key factors in a spike in homelessness among students. The segment began with a portion of an interview with Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho saying, “We have in excess of 13,000 students who are experiencing homelessness, that number increased by close to 19%.”

Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties have reported 45 cases of the bacteria in December, with nine different strains observed in the Portland metro area since October. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Multnomah County is encouraging residents to watch their hygiene after a boost in shigella cases was observed in Old Town Portland. Shigella is a bacteria that spreads via fecal matter, and creates symptoms that include fever, stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. It can last anywhere from three to 10 days. “Shigella spreads when one person’s infected poop gets into another person’s mouth through food or water, from objects or surfaces with shigella bacteria...