On Dec. 15, federal officials released reports that documented a sharp 12% increase in homelessness in this past year alone. 653,000– that number represents America’s current unhoused population. This is the highest this number has been since the US began documenting the unhoused population in 2007.
Image credit: CNN
California is among the top five states most demonstrative of this rise, with its homelessness rate ascending by 5.8% in 2023. New York tops the list with a 38.9% increase. Nationwide, this rise can be attributed to multiple potential causes: 1) Rent prices are rising, 2) Pandemic aid is now dwindling or extinct, 3) The mental health effects of the pandemic may affect people’s ability to acquire and retain a livable income, among many more.
Image credit: CBS
With the Republican primary gaining speed and the 2024 election approaching, these rates may influence voters. Noting that homelessness rates are highest in Washington DC, California, Vermont, Oregon, Hawaii, and New York– all of which are Democratic-leaning states– it’s not unreasonable to expect that there may be political shifts within these states, potentially influencing the general election. Additionally, noting the demographics of America’s unhoused population, certain races or genders may be inclined to vote similarly: according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are proportionally most impacted, followed by African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans. Additionally, men on average experience homelessness more than women.
Image credit: NBC
And with the upcoming general election in mind, perhaps candidates may consider addressing the issue of homelessness in America. Having published a fact sheet in April detailing an initiative to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025, the Biden-Harris Administration released its plan called All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Cooperating with 500 people who have themselves experienced homelessness, the Biden-Harris All In plan emphasizes supplying unhoused people’s basic needs, increasing housing accessibility, encouraging nationwide collaboration in All In, and more. Trump, who is leading in the Republican primary, hadn’t commented on homelessness since late April of this year when he proposed “ban[ning] urban camping,” and creating “inexpensive” “tent cities” to combat the issue. FL Governor Ron Desantis, who is a far second in the polls, has criticized CA Governor Gavin Newsom over his handling of homelessness in California, particularly in San Francisco. Desantis himself pledged $495,000 of funding to the Sharing Center, a social services organization that provides essential resources to Seminole County in Florida.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homeless-record-america-12-percent-jump-high-rents/
https://apnews.com/article/homelessness-increase-rent-hud-covid-60bd88687e1aef1b02d25425798bd3b1
https://covid19.nih.gov/covid-19-topics/mental-health
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/homeless-population-by-state
https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/
https://www.usich.gov/federal-strategic-plan/overview
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/08/homelessness-haunt-newsom-desantis-debate/
https://thesharingcenter.org/florida-governor-ron-desantis-pledgesfundstosharingcenter/
12 comments:
During APEC 2023, San Francisco moved all of the homeless from off the street and either offered them shelter or sequestered them to a certain part of the city. The change was instantly noticeable by simply walking or driving down the street. Homelessness has been a problem in SF for awhile now, especially in the Tenderloin district (which I've heard several SF residents say they avoid for that reason alone). I'm glad the government is finally addressing this problem for it's long overdue. APEC proved that such change in the city is possible, I'm really hoping the results will be long term and effective.
Although Chin-yi's statement about San Francisco's solution of relocating the homeless and offering shelter is true, multiple things still bother me. For one, the number of homeless people hasn't changed--they just moved from one place to another. As for another, according to San Francisco's Richmond Review, "Vacant homes in San Francisco have skyrocketed from approximately 40,000 in 2019 to more than 60,000 in 2021." That number is just insane to me. To think that San Francisco, a city known for its density, has all these uninhabited homes is crazy to me. The solution for treating homelessness is giving the homeless population the resources to find jobs and start gaining an income. But none of this can be achieved if they don't have a home! And as much as I want to believe in Biden's All-in Plan, I worry about its efficacy. Also, I don't know how genuine Biden is being with this plan. Is he doing this to be re-elected? That probably plays some part. But I guess as long as people will start getting the help they deserve, then maybe intention shouldn't matter as much. (I apologize for the word vomit).
"Unhoused people were just moved from one corner to another corner" (Jennifer Friedenbach, SF Chronicle). The situation in SF shows the possibilities in which homelessness can be dealt with. But, that is only a temporary solution. In preparation for the APEC summit, law enforcement really only pushed the homeless people to a different part of San Francisco to make sure there was a good impression on world leaders such as Xi Jinping. The article below talks about how high levels of homelessness are already present again in areas such as the Tenderloin district which Chin-Yi mentioned. I think that the most effective solution to the homelessness issues which are still on the rise would be lowering the rent prices. There is more people on the streets due to the overly high rent prices compared to other circumstances. California's second just following Hawaii on the rent prices while they are also noted to have been in the top 5 regarding increase in homelessness. This shows the strong relationship between increasing rent prices and increasing homelessness.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sf-homeless-crisis-apec-clean-streets-drug-crisis-18509955.php
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/mortgages/average-rent-by-state/
Decreasing homelessness should be one of the top priorities of both Biden and Trump in there presidential race. One reason for the rapid rise is the introduction fentanyl, which has resulted in an increase in drug related over doses and mental health problems among users. Addiction to the drug results in people losing there jobs, not being able to pay rent, and eventually end up homeless. One of the topics discussed at APEC was preventing fentanyl produced in China from shipping over to the United States illegally. Stopping the flow of narcotics would be a major step towards reducing homelessness (as well as increasing mental health resources). While countries such as the Netherlands and Portugal have legalized drugs with few consequences, they had the necessary resources to support those addicted to the drug and the power/backbone to regulate legal dispensers and crackdown on illegal ones. While the US should not replicate The War on Drugs, significant action is needed to reduce narcotics spreading within this country.
I completely agree with Zen. The solution won't be found by pushing homeless people in a corner with a home and hope that they'll do alright. While Biden's plan is hopeful for change, only real change will occur when the root problem of drugs and home pricing is fixed. Specifically in San Fransisco, one of the main causes of homelessness is the overuse of drugs and expensive housing. As prices in San Fransisco rise, it becomes unaffordable by most people. In California, 1/2 to 3/4 of homelessness is attributed to alcohol and drug dependence. If the government wants to fix homelessness they need to not only be able to house them in affordable places but also create infrastructure to give homeless people opportunities from jobs to rehab. In jails, one of the best things to do with inmates are to give them opportunities to get jobs and the support they need instead of saying the solution is more jail cells. Much like this, homelessness won't be solved by putting all the homeless people in shelters, but will be solves by creating infrastructure that will be able to support them as they overcome their adversities.
https://sfstandard.com/2023/10/20/san-francisco-homeless-encampments-tensions-boils-over-on-one-of-citys-busiest-streets/
https://abc7news.com/apec-2023-san-francisco-homeless-moscone-center-soma/14078222/
Homelessness is a problem that deserves to be voiced way more, and I am happy that it is finally receiving some attention. Building off of Chin-Yi, I also note that homelessness in SF has always been an obvious problem. My family used to love visiting the city, but we rarely go now--and they especially want to avoid the Tenderloin district.
Anyway, I hope this plan is successful as this can truly improve the lives of everyone. I wonder if there are ways that individuals with more "normal" living circumstances, can help? For example, donation drives for the homeless.
As I was reading this article, I was thinking of APEC like how Chin-yi mentioned. Even our Governor Gavin Newsom, admitted that he and the mayor of San Francisco cleaned up the streets for the world leaders who were attending APEC. While I do appreciate his honesty, it frustrates me about how the blatant homeless issue that has been prominent in San Francisco for years was only addressed for superficial reasons. I doubt that it the removal of homeless camps were removed humanely too.
Along with the United States having a blatant homeless issue despite having enough housing, California's housing zones have also blocked low-income housing buildings. Historically, California's housing zones permitted only single-family units. These laws have allowed areas like Baywood to only create these single family houses, which is why there is not a single multi-family building. Despite Gavin Newsom historically repealing sing-family house zoning laws, it'll take decades for us to see a real affect to this change.
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/newsom-says-sf-cleaned-up-apec-18488808.php
https://www.californiacitynews.org/2021/09/california-says-goodbye-single-family-zoning.html#:~:text=Gavin%20Newsom%20signed%20historic%20legislation,across%20the%20state%20of%20California.
Brennan brings up an important aspect of the unhoused situation, that being the rampant use of fentanyl within homeless populations. Independent news reporter Andrew Callaghan recently conducted a series of in-depth interviews with multiple San Francisco natives on homeless issues. It was interesting how prevalent the use of fentanyl is among the homeless population as it is one of the most dangerous drugs currently in use, with doses as small as two milligrams being potentially fatal. In 2021, nearly 75% of drug overdose deaths involved an opioid. Going back to the interviews, many of the homeless and San Francisco natives were displeased with how Mayor London Breed was handling the unhoused situation.
I agree that this should be an important issue for Biden and Trump, however, it should also rely a great deal on a city-by-city basis. One solution to the homeless issue that I believe should be implemented further is co-op housing. This style of housing doesn't aim to generate profit, rather the rent costs are used to pay for maintanence expenses, createing far cheaper prices than those currently on the market and would be a good solution for governments to offer. One solution could be repurposing the 30 million square feet of empty office space within San Francisco. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many major companies were able to thrive virtually and have placed looser requirements on workers showing up to the office. If the city bought back this space, it could be turned into cheap housing that could be provided for the unhoused. Overall, I believe this is a pressing issue within urban spaces. Political leaders must work to solve this issue by providing cheaper housing for the unhoused.
https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URfCwT3UQy4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKudSeqHSJk
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-office-vacancy-record-30-million-square-feet-18386268.php
Echoing what others have said I agree that the issue of homelessness is beyond just housing. There is a strong correlation between drug abuse and homelessness. According to the American Addiction Center, 1/3 of people who experience homelessness deal with problems with drugs and alcohol. Additionally, 2/3 of them have a history of disorders with drugs and alcohol.
Therefore, just relocating homeless people and sheltering them is not a solution to the issue. The issue of homelessness will be solved only when deeper issues like drug abuse, mental health issues, the high cost of living, etc. are addressed.
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/homeless
I’m glad that someone brought homelessness as a topic on this site. Assuming that everyone has grown up in the bay and been to San Francisco throughout their time growing up, there has definitely been a Jurassic change in San Francisco which can be attributed to homelessness. As the rent increases and mental health help decreases after the pandemic, many find themselves homeless. Personally, I am in many extracurriculars that try to combat the decreasing mental health in our community but what I’ve noticed is there isn't much help for those still struggling due to the impact of the pandemic. It seems as though we are all trying to forget what happened in hopes that this will strengthen our community but in reality, we are ignoring the lasting impacts that this has on all the generations now and following. The pandemic deteriorated many people's mental health and you can see the impact of that through the homeless populations. With the upcoming election, I hope to see more people taking accountability and trying to talk about things more important than a candidate's tik tok page or something petty and unimportant. Seeing these numbers should be alarming to many.
It’s definitely perplexing witnessing large clusters of unoccupied homes while this homelessness crisis continues to escalate, which makes me wonder if/how much impact investors/big companies such as Airbnb have on the housing market and rent prices.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/garybarker/2020/02/21/the-airbnb-effect-on-housing-and-rent/?sh=6a36b5052226
Like Brennan said, the growing usage of fentanyl is for sure exacerbating homeless. Building on that, the mental health issues caused by drug usage often prevents homeless from even wanting to seek help. While it is already a challenge figuring out how to provide shelter and hopefully long-term success for homeless people, it becomes exponentially more difficult when the issue of addiction is brought in. It also makes me question the effectiveness of cities handing out clean needles/supplies for drug users. On one hand, I understand that if somebody is addicted, they will find a way to use that drug even if it means using dirty needles which can cause additional health issues, but on the other hand I also can’t help but fear that it is only enabling the issue. I don’t know what a safe middle ground/solution to this would be though, as it would certainly be very costly and practically impossible to rehabilitate thousands.
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