The Number Of Americans Living On The Streets 'Has Broadly Risen This Year'
By Michael Snyder/Economic Collapse Blog June 27, 2023
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Joe Biden and the mainstream media keep telling us that the economy is in good shape, but we continue to get more evidence that directly contradicts that assertion.
Over the past few years, the cost of living has been rising much more rapidly than paychecks have, and this has absolutely eviscerated the middle class. So many families that were once thriving financially are now deeply struggling, and so many that were once deeply struggling to make ends meet are now living on the streets.
According to a comprehensive analysis that was just conducted by the Wall Street Journal, the number of homeless people in the United States "has broadly risen this year"...
The number of homeless people counted on streets and in shelters around the U.S. has broadly risen this year, according to a Wall Street Journal review of data from around the nation.
The Journal reviewed data from 150 entities that count homeless people in areas ranging from cities to entire states. More than 100 places reported increases in early 2023 counts compared with 2022, and collectively, their numbers indicate the U.S. might see a sharper climb than in recent years. Most major urban areas reporting data so far have seen increases, including Chicago, Miami, Boston and Phoenix.
We should all be deeply saddened by what we are witnessing.
Overall, the number of homeless Americans has increased by 9 percent just since last year...
The Journal received data from 67 of the 100 locales with the highest homeless counts last year, along with many others. Preliminary data show 48 of those 67 reported an increase this year, with combined counts up 9% from the numbers HUD published for those places in 2022 and 13% since 2020. Some places said comparisons to 2020 are better because of counting disruptions during the pandemic.
Of course those that do these counts openly acknowledge that they are undercounting the homeless population.
A lot of the homeless are very suspicious of social workers, and others simply do not want to be found.
But even if we want to accept the number that they are able to count, having nearly 600,000 Americans sleeping on the streets definitely qualifies as a major national crisis.
In San Diego, the homelessness crisis is worse than it has ever been before. In just the last seven months, 580 tons of trash has been collected from homeless encampments in the city...
In the seven months since the city of San Diego launched the Hot Spot program, it has collected 580 tons of trash from the streets and sidewalks around homeless encampments.
"Our streets are not as clean as they need to be," Mayor Todd Gloria said last week. "Our ongoing crisis of homeless encampments is making that problem worse, and we have to make our streets safe and sanitary."
Gloria is apparently not a fan of the homeless.
During a recent press conference, he stated that the homeless had turned one of San Diego's most prominent parks into "a giant toilet"...
"They expect to be able to walk on sidewalks unobstructed, they expect to be able to get their children to school safely, they expect to be able to use our parks in a hygienic and clean and safe way," Mayor Gloria said at a press conference in Balboa Park on Friday, CBS8 reported.
"This park, like all of our parks, are not a homeless shelter. It's not a place to live, it's not a giant toilet, it is not a trash dump," Gloria added.
But if they can't go in the park, where are they supposed to go?
Thanks to the disastrous policies of our leaders, our economy is being destroyed, and these people cannot afford homes of their own.
So what are they supposed to do?
Of course it is true that a substantial portion of the homeless are addicts, and as their numbers explode it is causing crime to spike in communities all over the country...
High rates of homelessness have given rise to increased crime in major cities across America. Major cities in California are also seeing residents flee to greener pastures like Texas and Colorado amid spiraling quality of life.
Meanwhile, New York City is crumbling under a wave of migrants bussed to the city from the U.S.-Mexico border. Democratic NYC Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order last month that limits the effect of NYC laws regulating how the city provides shelter to homeless people and migrants.
Under the new rules, the city no longer guarantees that families with children will have a bed by 4 a.m. if they make it to a city intake facility by 10 p.m.
Once upon a time, young people flocked to New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles.
But now we are seeing a "net exodus" from those cities due to all of the crime, drug abuse and homelessness that are plaguing those cities...
New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., are all seeing a net exodus of college graduates (as is San Jose). Those four cities were typically the finish line for those seeking jobs in media, politics, entertainment, finance, or tech. As New Yorkers used to boast, "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." For many college graduates, the goal was to make it in one of those four big brand cities.
No longer. All four are plagued by a crime crisis that has bled out from those icky poor areas of the cities that college graduates avoided and into the rest of the city. New York City's public transportation isn't safe. San Francisco is plagued by homelessness. Los Angeles actively refuses to keep violent criminals and gang members off the streets. Washington can't even guarantee the safety of members of Congress in their own apartments.
If things are this bad now, how bad will the homelessness crisis be once we get deep into the next recession?
This is about as good as things are going to get. During the months and years that are ahead of us, we are going to see so much suffering.
If you are still doing okay, it can be really easy to look down on the homeless. But we must not do that.
Because the truth is that most of us are just a bad break or two away from financial disaster.
So let us have compassion on those that are sleeping on the streets, because more Americans are joining their ranks with each passing day.
Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog - reposted with permission.
