I’ve seen this claim, or a variation of it, floating around for awhile, in one form or another. I guess to people who want to shit on California, it’s okay to share and not look into it. But I’m here to be the asshole correcting the record, and instead of making this a comment on their post, I’m gonna put it on my site. No, half of US homeless aren’t in California. Let’s check the facts.
He’s citing a White House report, so take the numbers with a grain of salt anyway. They’re not Census or the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Trump is known to distort facts for his bullshit anyway. Hell, even this post seems to be doing a “el oh el, how bad is the left coast, amirite?”
“Approximately 65 percent are found in homeless shelters, and the other 35 percent—just under 200,000—are found unsheltered on our streets (in places not intended for human habitation, such as sidewalks, parks, cars, or abandoned buildings).”
It goes on to say:
“Almost half (47 percent) of all unsheltered homeless people in the United States are found in California, about four times as high as their share of the overall United States population.”
But 47% of 33% (about 15.5%) is a lot less impressive than “wew CA is basically the whole nation’s homeless shelter”. So let’s also go over some concurrent factors, shall we? According to another US government site run by the Treasury, Datalab currently claims the distribution is closer to this.
And according to the same site, the areas with the most homeless are also the best funded for homeless programs.
So uh… yeah – the places best funded will have higher rates of homelessness. If you build it, they will come. Of course, even that claim is exaggerated – according to Politifact, 13% of LA county’s homeless are from out of state. So if you call that a representative slice of percentages, only 13% (at most) of the 15.5% are from out of state, and likely much lower, since we’re still talking unsheltered homeless.
So why did this claim circulate so widely? It’s a political football. That’s why. In June, Trump’s White House signed an executive order, forming a committee on eliminating what he called “regulatory barriers” in the way of reintegration. “Like many Americans, the president has taken notice of the homelessness crisis, particularly in cities and states where the liberal policies are combining to dramatically increase poverty and public health risks,” said Judd Deere, a White House spokesman.
So it makes sense that, months after this was issued, he’d come out with a paper highlighting the ideas. He’s gonna fix California! Unlike those dumb liberals. They ruined it and aren’t doing anything to fix it! Half the country’s homeless!
Sarcasm aside, the report makes some good points. CA is as bad as UK in terms of housing permission in major urban areas, and the higher the price of homes, the more homelessness an area experiences. So cutting regs would go a long way, if he can pull it off. So far, he’s only made it harder for immigrants to get assistance. We’ll see if he delivers on the rest.
But before you say he’s slashing regs, one of his policy prescriptions is a “right to shelter” program in California. What that essentially means is that they’d have to build huge amounts of new shelters, to meet minimum standards of quality, costing a huge amount of money. According to the UN, which is the model for the majority of RTS advocacy:
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
That economic impact would likely raise all prices, including home prices, which would basically funnel poor people into new shelters, if Trump’s assessment is correct. This happened in NY, which is the model for the RTS argument. Some shelters are even too full to take entrants. Too full of people the government tried and failed to problem-solve for. Maybe government isn’t the solution to our problems? Maybe government is the problem?
Or something like that.
But my point is simple. This isn’t as simple as CA having “half the homeless”. That’s absurd, incorrect, and the result of misinterpretation of numbers resultant of turning CA’s homelessness problem into a political football. CA is the whipping child for many ideologues, and I’ve pointed out, many times, to many people, that CA isn’t as bad as the obvious caricature insists. But claims like this persist. Most likely because it conforms to peoples’ biases, and helps them feel superior about not living there.
As someone who grew up in CA, I can tell you definitively, the homelessness problem is bad. But Trump isn’t the answer. Community and family are. Being there for people, running the counter economy, regardless of what regulations are in place, and helping people avoid homelessness, sheltered or not, is the solution. Not more government (especially Trump’s variety), and not offhanded social media posts.
Next time you see someone make this claim, or use it, send them this article. And feel free to check out the rest of my “Better Than Snopes” series, and suggest things you want me to hit next in the comments. And feel free to tell me if I got something wrong, here or anywhere else online. Gonna hit a lot of stuff hard coming up here, and unlike government, I plan to be accountable. Someone has to be, right?
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Liberty Under Attack Publications
Looking for a liberty-focused publisher? Liberty Under Attack Publications assists authors through the entire publishing process — proofreading, editing, cover designs, paperback/Kindle formatting, and full audiobook narration and post-production. Tell them Jeremiah sent you and take 20% off a full service deal. They also publish books and strategy guides for individuals looking to increase their personal freedom — great anarchist fiction like #agora, and guides like Shane Radliff’s, “Vonu: A Strategy for Self-Liberation.” To publish your next book or to find your next read, please visit LibertyUnderAttack.com. Share your story, find your freedom.
Liberty Professionals
Liberty Professionals will help you secure your home, small business, and life. It’s run by a residential security expert, who is an ASIS board certified physical security professional. And if you need work done in the Virginia area, they do missing persons investigations, skip tracing, and more. Contact them for more info. He has all the necessary tools in his toolbox to bring you peace of mind and stability for the future. Support liberty businesses, and these streams, by heading over to libertyprofessionals.com to get your consult today!
Join Pocketnet – decentralized, blockchain, censor-resistant social net!
Still solo on this, except my awesome patrons and sponsors, and shows like mine take days of research and many hours to put together solo. I don’t have a staff to feed, but I need to eat. If you want to support articles like this, feel free to help with a monthly or one time donation… as yet, I have not profited from this site. Hell, I haven’t even gotten half minimum wage, and most days, I get zero dollars. You can help change that.
Please consider donating on Venmo or PayPal. And if you really appreciated it, and want to help me make more of these more regularly, consider supporting me on BitBacker, SubscribeStar, or Patreon. Without your support, I can’t eat, much less make content.
If there’s a way you want to support me that I don’t list as of yet, let me know, and I’ll likely be more than happy to accomodate. But thank you so much if you decide to. I want this to be my job, and you could bring me one step closer. Also, consider subbing to my newsletter for a weekly update as to happenings. Also, feel free to subscribe on one of the platforms not-too-statist to have me.