US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people

[FakeNoose]

AP News link: https://apnews.com/article/homelessness-population-count-2024-hud-migrants-2e0e2b4503b754612a1d0b3b73abf75f

The United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness this year, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country, federal officials said Friday.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said federally required tallies taken across the country in January found that more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless — a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own.

That increase comes on top of a 12% increase in 2023, which HUD blamed on soaring rents and the end of pandemic assistance. The 2023 increase also was driven by people experiencing homelessness for the first time. The numbers overall represent 23 of every 10,000 people in the U.S., with Black people being overrepresented among the homeless population.

“No American should face homelessness, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring every family has access to the affordable, safe, and quality housing they deserve,” HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman said in a statement, adding that the focus should remain on “evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness.”

- more at link -

I have to say that it's really become a problem in Pittsburgh, to the point where city leaders have taken over empty buildings and are rehabbing them for the homeless. The plan is to get these people off the street and out of the tent camps, at least during the cold winter months. It's dangerous the way the homeless men and women are standing at busy street corners and begging for handouts.

[uponit7771]

1. Yep, housing is 30 plus percent of the reason why the Real Wage Index is far from the 2019 trajectory. We're becoming UK

... and Canada

[standingtall]

2. This will not get in better over they next 4 years

Democrats made a mistake in capitulating to Republican policies like vouchers and allowing traditional public housing or as some call it section 9 to be decimated. Voucher are not bad by themselves, but when they are used as means to replace traditional public housing it's a problem. They are not designed to accommodate nearly as many low income people as traditional public housing. Only 25% of people eligible for vouchers even receive one. Of course there are other reasons why homelessness has spiked in America, but for me the biggest one is the loss of public housing stock. Public housing stock peaked in 1994 and if we had public housing stock at 1994 levels and just put 1 person in each unit that would be enough to house about 2/3rds of the estimated homeless population today. Instead we have far fewer today, when should have more to keep up with the increased population. Until the federal Government and State Governments start doing what they use to do and bring back public housing stock, then they are not serious about addressing the homelessness issue. Anything else they do is just window dressing.

[intheflow]

3. And this is why Trump won.

We can talk all day about low unemployment rates but no one says much about how the jobs don’t pay a living wage that allows for basics like housing. We can bitch about greedy landlords - and there are many! - but no one seems to want to regulate them. Of course none of this will be better under Trump but we didn’t do ourselves any favors by not addressing these realities.