[seemslegit]

The vast majority of the homeless are not such because the rent went up just above what they could previously afford but because they're unemployable and no one will rent a place to them usually due to a comibnation of substance abuse and mental illness, so they panhandle or do odd jobs and need to be in a place where there is a strong foot traffic of relatively well-off people and a thriving street economy, between those cities SF and NYC fit the bill the most and also have the most homeless-friendly laws and also most shelters, charities etc.

[carapace]

Yeah, people who become homeless aren't a homogeneous group. I was homeless for about ~4.5 years back in the late 90's.

In my experience from that time, mostly spent around Seattle, that roughly 2/3's of the people you see on the streets have some kind of physical, mental or emotional problems that prevent them from navigating modern civilization.

(As an aside I don't think most folks in it have a good idea just how challenging modern society can be. The street is sort of like a time machine in that living there is like going back in time two or three centuries. There are a lot of inconveniences but life is fundamentally simpler if all you have to worry about each day is that day's food and a place to crash that night. That's why I support a safety net. Not welfare in the sense of ongoing payments forever but a way to catch and support people when they stumble, to help them back to a normal life. Related to that, there's a guy who has sat in front of University district Safeway for twenty years selling "Street Sheet". To me selling Streetsheet isn't meant to be a lifetime job. If dude had put a dollar a day in a saving account with compound interest he would be ready to retire soon. That's the kind of thing I mean about helping people use civilization's API.)

Of the remaining 1/3 or so you have a mix of e.g. punk rock anti-society types, hippies, nomads, runaway kids(!), and drifters. In other words, folks who either want to be there or have no better option.

There are very few people who have their act together and live on the street because it's actually pretty easy to get off the street if you have a good attitude and are willing to work.

The answer to the OP's question is simply that people who can move to another city and get a job do that and so aren't homeless anymore.

[wikibob]

> If dude had put a dollar a day in a saving account with compound interest he would be ready to retire soon.

This is plainly wrong. Saving $1 per day, at 7% interest, would net about $15,000 after 20 years.

See for yourself: https://financialmentor.com/calculator/compound-interest-cal...

[carapace]

Ok, yes, but you know what I mean.

[heavyset_go]

The vast majority of homeless in NYC and SF are homeless for economic reasons, like insufficient income, lack of affordable housing or the loss of income.

[seemslegit]

That's true, but pretty tautological as far as being an explanation for homelessness goes, it is also true for every other place.

[heavyset_go]

The studies I'm thinking of explicitly measure homelessness due to relationship issues and divorce, violence, mental illness and drug addiction, as well as economic issues. Over the last 15 years, people, and specifically families, have become homeless increasingly because of economic issues.