Homeless By The Numbers

HOMELESS BY THE NUMBERS

by Michael Gerald

According to Statista, there were 552,830 homeless people accounted for in the United States in 2018. Los Angeles County has nearly 60,000 homeless people with nearly 9,000 of those being under the age of 24. Seven percent of those that are homeless in Los Angeles are veterans, and in nearly one third of all households in Los Angeles half of the household income goes towards rent or mortgage.

What is most discouraging about southern California's homeless population is that Los Angeles County isn't the only place affected by this epidemic. Neighboring Ventura and Orange counties are also suffering from their own homeless crisis and nearby San Diego ranks fifth on the top ten list.

But as the nation sits back and points the finger at California in a partisan frenzy, other states have seen their homeless numbers on the rise. In 2018, Forbes reported that New York, Florida, Texas, and Washington state are also experiencing and influx in their homeless populations.

These five states make up half of the total homeless population in the country, with New York and California making up nearly a quarter of that number. In fact, New York City has more homeless people than Los Angeles, with a total reported number of 78,676 people. The only difference being that 75% of Los Angeles' homeless population are living unsheltered, in comparison to 5% in New York.

It is easy to see why New York and Los Angeles would rank so high on the list, since both of these booming Metropolis' are populated with over ten million people. But if you were to take them out of the equation, that would leave over 60,272 homeless people split among the remaining eight cities on the top ten list.

Population According to US Census

New York - 8,601,186

Los Angeles - 4,057,841

Seattle - 766,893

San Diego - 1,453,775

San Jose - 1,033,519

Washington DC - 713,549

San Francisco - 897,536

Phoenix - 1,711,356

Boston - 694,784

Las Vegas - 664,304

Homeless Population & Percentage of Total Population

New York - 78,676 (0.91%)

Los Angeles - 49,955 (1.23%)

Seattle - 12,112 (1.57%)

San Diego - 8,576 (0.58%)

San Jose - 7,254 (0.70%)

Washington DC - 6,904 (0.96%)

San Francisco - 6,857 (0.76%)

Phoenix - 6,298 (0.36%)

Boston - 6,188 (0.89%)

Las Vegas - 6,083 (0.91%)

But if you were to take a look at these numbers by percentage of the population, Seattle would jump to the number on spot, Los Angeles would keep its ranking at number two, Washington D.C. jumps ahead of New York, and Las Vegas jumps from tenth to a fourth place tie with New York.

Homelessness is not a good thing no matter where you fall in the rankings, but this shows how easy it is to misconstrue the numbers.

When you take a closer look, you might find other factors that play a key role in why these numbers may seem a bit skewed as well. For an example, in New York City, having many homeless people on the streets during bitter winters caused the city to declare a Code Blue warning, and forced them to come up with more shelters to better protect their homeless community against hypothermia and frostbite.

To counter this problem, the De Blasio administration tore down hundreds of low quality shelters and replaced them with 90 new facilities with some of them including affordable housing. Although critics griped that the money would be better spent on more affordable housing, this project helped to get lots of the New York homeless population of the frigid streets.

However, Los Angeles County has a different set of challenges. Its "reported" aggregated population of over 10 million people, is nearly two million more than all of the five boroughs of New York, with massive area of 4,084 square miles in comparison to New York's 304.8 square miles.

To put this in better perspective, Los Angeles County extended nearly to Las Vegas to the east and included what is now San Bernardino County in the mid 1800's. With an average of nearly 7,000 people per square mile in comparison to New York's 5,319, Los Angeles is even more dense than the Gotham City.

Now toss in the varied temperature differences across the county from the mild beach climate to the city from the hot valley's to the blistering deserts, and you can see why logistically, solving Los Angeles homeless crisis is not as simple as throwing up a few shelters and calling it a day.

Using Los Angeles' homeless population as a punching bag has become a rallying cry for those who have never even visited, and some of the wealthy elite who believe these people are an eye sore to their communities and surrounding areas.

But perhaps, if some of these same people were to act in the true spirit of the moniker The City of Angels, then they would spend time trying to figure out ways to use there power and influence to partner with the city to help those in need instead of focusing on always obtaining more wealth and greed.

There is no one single fix to the homeless epidemic in Los Angeles, but partisanship certainly is not the answer, and no one wants to be used as a rhetorical pawn in a political game.

Many post online after an article or video speak about the homeless crisis in Los Angeles, in terms of democrats in office being the problem, but after living in Los Angeles for over thirty years, there has always been homeless people on the streets.

The only difference now seems to be the shear size of the population, with Los Angeles County pushing over 10 million people, and if you were to take a closer look at the top 10 homeless cities, you will find that San Diego, which has a Republican mayor is fourth on the list, are we to blame him for all poverty and homelessness.

The truth of the matter is that a city's size, property value, and population and economic growth are the variables that seem to matter more than whether politicians of republican or democrat.

If you live in an area with a population of under 15,000people, of course the chances of you having a large homeless population or lowered. And no one can fault you for not caring about something you may not understand or have a frame of reference.

But if people cared more about these human beings as individuals and less about politics and bureaucracy, just maybe we can solve or reduce the homeless crisis in the country among the people.

Homeless encampment in Oakland, California

If someone is drowning in hurricane floods or loss their home to tornado or earthquake, we don't wait for the city to rescue them when they are in peril right in front of our faces.