I feel like the answer to lot of unanswerable questions involves how they do things in Japan. Seoul has low rates of homelessness as well.

I'm one hundred percent convinced that America can't hope to recreate the institutional successes of Japan/Korea/Singapore in this area, but I'd love to be proved wrong.

Fun fact Japan homelessness peaked during their asset bubble in the 90s and has been declining since.

Also in so many parts of America the “lowest rung” of housing is extremely expensive relative to incomes, which is not something that is true in many cities around the world. Add in the American rejection of urbanism and the services that come with it…

That's a really interesting example. I wonder what we can learn from Tokyo.

Do they have some special affordable housing setup in Tokyo? Or is there some cultural component (it does strike me that even in the us asians are very underrepresented among the homeless)?

Japan has national zoning policies that allow for much greater housing density and incredible public transit in comparison to the US.

I’ve heard there’s also some cultural component where older houses aren’t valued at highly but I can’t really speak to its validity.

Housing is cheap in Tokyo. They just build a lot of it. And, contrary to vestigial American beliefs about tiny Japanese apartments, the typical Tokyo apartment is now more spacious than those of major American cities like New York. And, because they build so much, the typical apartment there is new and nice, instead of old and busted.

>Housing is cheap in Tokyo.

Eh, it's 400k for a small 1 br on average. That's cheaper than SF or NYC but not cheaper than Chicago or Dallas or Atlanta.

I can’t overstate how poor quality and lacking in amenities American condos are when one compares them to ones in Asia. Upper middle class condos in most of Asia are the equivalent of 1%er condos in America.

And the best part is often you buy a condo unfinished and literally get to build it out to your specifications and choose materials. Have never seen that in the US for non yacht owning individuals.