A Boring Dystopia @lemmy.world return2ozma @lemmy.world 2w ago

US is on track to set record for homeless people with over 650K living on the streets

www.independent.co.uk US is on track to set record for homeless people with over 650K living on the streets

Cities reporting increases in unhoused people include Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Miami

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Can go right next to the trophy for highest incarceration rates.
- USA! USA! USA!
It's pretty cool how the richest nation in the history of the world can't take care of people. /s
- Not can't--won't.
If every church in America housed 2.5 unhoused people the crisis would be solved overnight.

Who am i kidding though, American churches don't exist to help people they exist to ~~tax~~ tithe people
- When I feed the poor, I'm called a Saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, I'm called a communist.
  
  The quote is by a priest from South America. I think about that alot when I think about church.
  
  Only monarchists think communist is an insult.
  
  No, see, feeding the poor is illegal.
- To be fair, a lot of small community churches or other religious shelters seem to do a lot more than anyone else about the problem.
  
  Debatable.
  
  I work for a church. We do a LOT for the community. Free lunches under the bridge. Park clean ups every season. After school programs for kids.
  
  But in no way are we even close to doing as much good as actual organized programs that have real leadership and get funding.
- Churches are a social hate group. I love faith, especially when you have to do the spiritual work yourself, but organized faith corrupts the mind and soul.
Don't worry, we have a fix for this.

We banned them from the streets.
Definitely a gross under count of the amount of homeless people. I'd imagine due to the government only counting occupied beds in shelters, the homeless they can physically count on one day, and not the number of incarcerated homeless. The amount is three times higher!
- That's not really how it works, the census bureau is extremely thorough - they send people into encampments regularly, work with homeless charities of all kinds, etc. These counts are estimates unless it's a federal census year (when they absolutely do count every individual person that they possibly can), but they're not going to be wildly inaccurate.
  
  The much bigger issue is that these numbers appear to be limited to city limits or greater city area, and that's where the discrepancy is gonna show up. Most homeless people dont live in cities, and camps are often established on conveniently unincorporated land so they dont have to be counted. Bureaucratic bastardry at its finest.
  
  https://youtu.be/liptMbjF3EE
$650k and still homeless. Housing market is out of control.
- Housing should he a necessity of life. Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to own homes. Limit individuals to 5.
  
  If corporations want to own “homes” then they can build an apartment complex.
  
  Id say even max two houses. No one needs more than one anyways. The second can be for the rich assholes that need vacation homes.
  
  Or control the type of ownership based on the number of doors. 1 to 4 doors > private ownership. 5 to 8 doors > corporation or cooperatives. 9 doors or more > cooperatives/non profit/State corporation.
  
  Which they are already doing everywhere in my area. I’d say we should also limit their ownership of apartment complexes. Though that’s a tougher problem to solve.
- 650k people are homeless. Has nothing to do w housing market or salary.
  
  “Data collected and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal from more than 250 homeless organizations have counted at least 550,000 homeless people so far, a 10 percent rise from last year’s reports. The numbers gathered from cities and rural areas show homelessness as it was on a single night earlier this year.
  
  The upward trend means that the US will probably reach and pass the 2023 estimate of 653,000 homeless people. It’s the highest number since the government began sharing such data in 2007.”
  
  I was confused by the title at first too. It should probably be "US is on track to set a new record for homelessness with over 650K people living on the streets".
WE'RE NUMBER ONE! LETS GOOO!
- U S A!!! U S A!!! U S A!!!
It'll get worse, so don't go making any bets or anything. I know being an optimist is cool and all, but seriously.
WHOOOO! USA #1!!!
So like 1 in 50 500 pll is homeless? That's crazy. Ther is not even a significant crisis or war directly affecting the US.

~~Edit: I can't read~~

Edit II : OK, reading was fine (on the first go) I just did my math with 1million = 100* thousand ... I am tired and have a cold, please excuse my many fumbles in this comment xD.
- I think you're off by a factor of 10. 650k out of 330 million is about 1 in 500. It's still way too many people, don't get me wrong, just wanted to clarify.
  
  Thanks, yeah I'm not so fovused atm. But defenetly still too many homless folk.
In San Diego sure but what about the rest of the country?
- Ouch. Just ouch.
See the guy in orange on the left?

Now, what are those toddlers dressed in fluo doing next to him?

46 comments