What happened to create so many homeless?

[mschrisgo2]

"What happened to create so many homeless?"

Really, I'm almost shocked at this question...
I know about California because that's where I live. What is similar or different where you live?

Here in California, we just about had a handle on providing services for the mentally ill people who had been on the streets since Reagan closed the mental hospitals when he was governor of California. I was working in Berkeley in those years, and the city slowly and carefully, supported by NGOs, got people help, one by one, and ultimately almost all of them off the streets. There were just a handful left downtown.

Then, the "new" highly addictive drugs flooded the street market, endangering lots of people but particularly the young adults. Many "rehab" facilities in California recruited in the midwest and bussed "patients" here for their programs (corporate greed and exploitation of a social issue). 30-60 days later, they were pronounced cured and discharged (without bus fare home). Winter in California has better weather than almost anywhere else, and they had nothing to go "home" to, so they stayed here. And of course they had their new friends with them, and they were all highly susceptible to relapse, which they have done in huge numbers, i.e. new street people.

Simultaneously, the high tech industry had finally totally oversaturated the housing market. The housing boom had encouraged municipalities to zone downtowns for high density, while prohibiting the building of single family homes of less than 2200 sq feet. Those changes caused many seniors to leave their homes, and many more assisted living facilities have been built, and are full of those who can afford them.

But the seniors who cannot afford assisted living, and the young people without roots, and families with more kids than they can feed on their retail or fast food income... all of these are competing for a very small amount of housing.

Now add 7 catastrophic fires and 4 floods that destroyed many thousands of homes inside of 2 years, and we have an Extreme Housing Crisis in California- which in turn is exacerbating mental health issues and causing new ones (PTSD from running through fire to escape, for instance), thousands of people are without work because their workplaces burned up, cars were destroyed, all clothing and household belongings gone- and there literally is no place to live to start over.

Bingo! We have just increased the homeless population by many thousands of people. See, it is not a simple situation, there are complex causes, but I think the underlying theme is poorly thought out government decisions, particularly zoning- which has terribly affected available housing. People in their 60-70-80s don't want to live in the 2200+ sq ft house anymore. And neither do young families, because they just can't afford it, financially or time-wise. But the small homes have been torn down, and it's illegal to build more. Makes no sense, at all.

[Teacher Terry]

Nevada has a big problem now because they tore down all the weekly motels near downtown. These were cheap places for people to live. Also rents have skyrocketed and drug use has increased.

[pinkytoe]

I keep wondering if the 2008 recession was the starting point for many. I see so many young homeless that I wonder if they didn't grow up in homes and families that fell apart during that time. When I read in-depth articles about individual homeless people... their hardships are very often the result of bad choices more than anything. Many are felons who can't easily re-enter the system so they just resort to disappearing into the homeless camps or woods. I also think about how mediocre educations and bad parenting might contribute. Speaking of elders, a developer bought an apt building here that had been home to many seniors for years. He basically gave them all two months to be out so he could renovate and double the rent. They all had to scramble to find new homes amid rising prices all over. They lost their support network of each other's friendship as they ended up all over the city apart from each other. That sort of thing doesn't help.

[LDAHL]

Are there actually more homeless now than ten or twenty years ago?

[Teacher Terry]

There are in Nevada. We are number 2 in the nation right behind California. We are number 1 for homeless youth. I looked it up. It started with the recession of 2008 when jobs were lost and now with rents escalating and the weeklies gone things are worse.

[Rogar]

There has been a serious decline in long term patient care in psychiatric hospitals. Now these people end up in half-way houses, jail, or homeless. Per my brother, the retired social worker. I'm sure there are other reasons, but that is one.

[iris lilies]

Are there actually more homeless now than ten or twenty years ago?

This article, abput the i flux of homeless in the LA public library, was first on my Google hit list.

http://articles.latimes.com/1993-08-10/news/mn-22346_1_public-library

It is from 1993.

[Teacher Terry]

Roger, absolutely that’s one of the issues. It’s a complicated problem with many causes.

[Gardnr]

2 neighboring states are busing them to Boise. A new 40 apt facility was built. 30 were filled day 1. We just had 2 weeks straight below freezing. The day shelters are packed, the sleeping shelters are overflowing. It's not good. :-(

[ApatheticNoMore]

There is insufficient housing that and the rent is too high (but these two might not be entirely unrelated :)). But there literally isn't enough housing for people in CA. The population increased, housing was not built to keep up with it, there is literally a housing shortage, you can't escape insufficient housing just by helping the mentally ill. Housing needs to get built, in population centers where people actually live of course (there are new "brilliant" (sarc) plans to build housing out in the middle of nowhere lately .... )

[ApatheticNoMore]

Are there actually more homeless now than ten or twenty years ago?

in CA, yes, I've seen the data, every year it was increasing but may have started dropping a bit real recently.

[Lainey]

I keep thinking that some of these aging/dead shopping centers could be renovated as housing of some sort. They could also provide space for on-site services.
I just wish our government would stop making piece-meal efforts and step up with some real solutions.

[iris lilies]

I keep thinking that some of these aging/dead shopping centers could be renovated as housing of some sort. They could also provide space for on-site services.
I just wish our government would stop making piece-meal efforts and step up with some real solutions.

oh yes! Send all homeless out to the ‘burbs where those dead malls live. Great idea! I am behind this all the way.

Signed,
Iris, Urban dweller in the land where there are no malls because developers and chain stores would not build in the gritty urban dirty city habituated by po’ folks

[JaneV2.0]

In Portland, they built a jail, for some reason. It sat empty for years. Many have suggested the city repurpose it as a homeless facility, which has drawn criticism from various fronts. At this point, it has been bought and probably will be demolished. And Portland has a huge homeless population. I don't get it.

[sweetana3]

One of our malls has been turned into a huge Homeland Security facility after years of issues with the contractors. It would have been well placed to provide additional housing since it is on good bus lines, with a large grocery store on the same block. It is also in an area of high need. An abandoned Kmart was turned into a huge storage facility and it to would have been well placed due to existing bus lines and easy access downtown to facilities.

But these require immediate funds to acquire the property and time to renovate. Something to think about. Neither of these were in the burbs but in the downtown donut areas of auto repair shops, small auto sales businesses and other low end businesses.

[Simplemind]

As Jane mentioned, we have a huge homeless population in Portland. It is actually a destination from other states since we seem to be very generous in programs for them. We live backed up to a greenspace called the Springwater Trail. We are not fenced and a couple of years ago there was a homeless camp just on the other side of the creek from us. Drug use is rampant as well as theft. They fenced off the property due to all the erosion and garbage problems and things have improved a great deal. All the blankets, coats, socks, gloves etc that were getting wet in the weather were being dumped on shore and they would just go get new dry items and continue dumping. Huge cost in having police and abandoned camp cleaning patrols.

[pinkytoe]

We have a very large population here which came as a surprise to us when we chose this city to retire to. They are everywhere - living in camps, cars, RVs, alleys, parks...must be a good place to be homeless though I would pick someplace warmer if I were in that boat.

[dado potato]

in CA, yes, I've seen the data, every year it was increasing but may have started dropping a bit real recently.

I see that the California Justice Department has approved the merger of Dignity Health (Head Office San Francisco) and Catholic Health Initiatives - CHI (Head Office Denver) into "CommonSpirit" which will be one huuuge non-profit health care system. The State of California will require CommonSpirit to spend $20 million over the coming 6 years to provide housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness in CA.

On one hand the CEO of Dignity Health seems to be all for it! He says addressing homelessness (together with illness and substance abuse) needs to be an integrated approach, rather than trying to solve any of the 3 problems in isolation. And I believe $20 million from Common Spirit will result in some highly affordable housing units in CA, possibly on land that already is owned by Dignity Health affiliated hospitals.

On the other hand, Dignity Health is barely breaking even on operations, and CHI has been losing lots of money in recent years. For CHI, the cost to borrow more money was going up due to debt downgrades by Fitch, S&P and Moodys. A major attraction of consolidation with Dignity Health was to improve upon CHI's ability to borrow for capital expenditures. The combined entity of CommonSpirit will start with about $10 billion in debt. It gives me some angst that the regulatory approval process in CA on this merger included the $20 million mandate to address homelessness. (There is also a mandate for CommonSpirit to provide CA residents a 100% discount on their hospital bill if they earn less than 250% of the "poverty line".)


I hope for wellness outcomes for all concerned.

[LDAHL]

I see that the California Justice Department has approved the merger of Dignity Health (Head Office San Francisco) and Catholic Health Initiatives - CHI (Head Office Denver) into "CommonSpirit" which will be one huuuge non-profit health care system. The State of California will require CommonSpirit to spend $20 million over the coming 6 years to provide housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness in CA.

On one hand the CEO of Dignity Health seems to be all for it! He says addressing homelessness (together with illness and substance abuse) needs to be an integrated approach, rather than trying to solve any of the 3 problems in isolation. And I believe $20 million from Common Spirit will result in some highly affordable housing units in CA, possibly on land that already is owned by Dignity Health affiliated hospitals.

On the other hand, Dignity Health is barely breaking even on operations, and CHI has been losing lots of money in recent years. For CHI, the cost to borrow more money was going up due to debt downgrades by Fitch, S&P and Moodys. A major attraction of consolidation with Dignity Health was to improve upon CHI's ability to borrow for capital expenditures. The combined entity of CommonSpirit will start with about $10 billion in debt. It gives me some angst that the regulatory approval process in CA on this merger included the $20 million mandate to address homelessness. (There is also a mandate for CommonSpirit to provide CA residents a 100% discount on their hospital bill if they earn less than 250% of the "poverty line".)


I hope for wellness outcomes for all concerned.

Who in his right mind would lend money on the strength of a merger of two overleveraged entities burdened by such large State mandates? Is California offering some kind of guarantee?

[bae]

A remember seeing a graph just a couple of weeks ago indicating that in most states, the homeless trend was downwards, but also suggesting there's a concentration in a few cities.

I can't quickly relocate it, but it might be worth digging up actual data, if available.

Our County's homeless counts show a reduction in numbers, even though by anecdote, everyone here thinks the problem is "worse" and that we need to "do something fast!".

[Teacher Terry]

I have looked up the stats and ours is increasing because of rents going so high and a rental shortage.

[dado potato]

Who in his right mind would lend money on the strength of a merger of two overleveraged entities burdened by such large State mandates? Is California offering some kind of guarantee?

Aetna (recently acquired by CVS) "is helping to build a healthier world". Maybe Aetna would be interested in buying bonds in overleveraged hospitals as they consolidate. Heads, they win. :cool: Tails, the hospitals go through a financial reorganization and the bondholders become the new owners. :laff:

Speaking personally, I have never felt comfortable with the default risk associated with hospital bonds. Maybe I would consider buying one, if the bond was insured and it was rated investment grade. I do not believe California is making a guarantee …

[bae]

Ah, here's the graph:

https://www.businessinsider.com/homeless-population-usa-states-2018-11

https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5bf3142938150774b71980c1-1920-2702.png

[Miss Cellaneous]

I live in a small city of about 30,000. There is one homeless shelter in town. They average 200 people a year staying at the shelter and they are almost always full. They get a lot of families, both single-parent and intact families.

Here in New Hampshire, the winter cold and snow make shelter a necessity. Most of the surrounding towns have a shelter and the county runs a shelter in the winter. When one is full, police will transport people to another town with space in a shelter--all someone has to do is ask for a ride. Our city police station makes the lobby available for people to come in and get warm, and the local senior center has a warming shelter available during the day.

The shelter in a neighboring city has space for 100 single people a night. They were over capacity 84% of the time last year.

I have never seen someone who looks homeless here. Not the way I could easily identify many homeless when I lived in Boston. I think in smaller cities and towns like mine, it's a hidden problem. Until this posts, I hadn't given the subject much thought--out of sight, out of mind.

[LDAHL]

Ah, here's the graph:

https://www.businessinsider.com/homeless-population-usa-states-2018-11

https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5bf3142938150774b71980c1-1920-2702.png

Might some of the increase in the Dakotas be related to the rapid influx of oil and gas workers?

[bae]

Might some of the increase in the Dakotas be related to the rapid influx of oil and gas workers?

I drove through there several times in 2018, in the spring and summer, and in the fall of 2017, and I was amazed at the number of mobile homes, RVs, and other such things in clusters alongside the road, clearly looking like expedient/rapid housing for workers. I suspect those states' numbers are "odd" because the housing stock hasn't remotely caught up to the gold-rush demand.

[bae]

Might some of the increase in the Dakotas be related to the rapid influx of oil and gas workers?

I drove through there several times in 2018, in the spring and summer, and in the fall of 2017, and I was amazed at the number of mobile homes, RVs, and other such things in clusters alongside the road, clearly looking like expedient/rapid housing for workers. I suspect those states' numbers are "odd" because the housing stock hasn't remotely caught up to the gold-rush demand.

I think I mentioned a few years ago when I got my HAZMAT certifications, I received out-of-the-blue multiple job offers from companies in the region. They must have been desperate for a workforce.

[LDAHL]

I drove through there several times in 2018, in the spring and summer, and in the fall of 2017, and I was amazed at the number of mobile homes, RVs, and other such things in clusters alongside the road, clearly looking like expedient/rapid housing for workers. I suspect those states' numbers are "odd" because the housing stock hasn't remotely caught up to the gold-rush demand.

I knew a guy who worked on the Alaska pipeline back in the day. He described scenes like that.