Re:California has the highest poverty rate in the USA
by temp-dude-87844 on Monday January 15, 2018 @06:32PM
(#16154431)
I don't intend to discount your personal experiences at all, but in San Francisco's 2017 report [1] on homelessness, 69% of counted individuals reported that they were living in SF at the time they became homeless, and of those, 55% had lived in SF for 10 or more years.
Only 10% of total counted reported living outside of California when they became homeless. I can intuitively understand that weather may be a draw, but San Francisco's findings this year, as well as in 2015 don't appear to back that a majority of those experiencing homelessness in San Francisco are travelling there from outside the state.
[1] http://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-SF-Poin...
Re:California has the highest poverty rate in the USA
by DoreenMichele on Monday January 15, 2018 @06:36PM
(#16154462)
I did not say it accounts for a majority of homeless Californians. If it accounts for even 5 percent, that would be a lot of people. Your figure of 10 percent coming from out of state actually supports my assertion that homeless people actually travel to California while homeless. The only thing missing is data as to why they made that decision.
I had a class in Homelessness and Public Policy from SFSU some years ago. I lived in California a total of 12 it 13 years, iirc. Five and half of those were as a homeless person.
I am author of the blog the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide, which means I hear from both homeless individuals and reporters periodically. I still participate on a homeless discussion forum where it is not uncommon for people to ask where they should move to as a homeless person. I traveled from Georgia to San Diego as a homeless person. I went there in part for the dry, temperate weather.
I recently got off the street in part by traveling to someplace cheaper. It is much wetter here than the places I lived while homeless. Nonetheless, it is a relatively temperate part of Washington and seems to attract a lot of homeless. I am fairly confident the relatively temperate weather is a factor.