UPDATE: Homelessness in the US Right Now

Most cities and counties across the US have finally released their Point-In-Time (homeless count) Reports for 2017 and results are not great. The two cities with the largest homeless populations, New York City and LA, show HUGE increases in their homeless numbers since 2016 (NYC is up 40% and LA up 23%).

In terms of LA, Prop HHH and Measure H (bills passed last November and March, respectively, that were supposed to increase funding towards housing and support services for the homeless), clearly haven't had their intended effects, at least not yet. But why the huge increases? Even if new policies aren't ending homelessness, why are the homeless populations increasing dramatically rather than remaining stagnant?

According to MaryEllen, my boss at the American Round Table to Abolish Homelessness (organization headed by Philip Mangano, who spoke at How Policymakers Fight Homelessness), homelessness is increasing in huge cities because no one is moving out of homelessness. In fact, a number of factors are causing people to move into homelessness right now: the aging baby boomer generation, the poor job market, and increasing real estate costs, to name a few. According to MaryEllen, the government knows how to solve this problem: by placing homeless people in Permanent Supportive Housing (housing + support services). But cities are not housing homeless people nearly to the extent that they need to be to get their numbers down. This is an issue of scaling, and the problem will be solved only when cities focus their energies on HOUSING the homeless in large numbers, rather than just providing shelters and other temporary supports.