[opinion-is-bad]

CA has 1/2 the population of homeless in the US but only 1/8 of total population. The eastern seaboard has close to half the US population but obviously cannot have nearly the same rate of homeless.

Something is at play, though it need not be anything too complicated. Good weather and significant resources dedicated to making the homeless comfortable make California the obvious destination.

There are possibly network effects within homeless communities that are hard for outsiders to understand as well.

[Tiktaalik]

The economy of California is pretty good vs other states.

People from all over the USA travel to places like California for better economic opportunities.

Misfortunes happen and people become homeless.

Thus you end up with people from "out of state" that are homeless.

[edderly]

Thank you, is there a link where I could cite that information?

[opinion-is-bad]

I need to write that I was slightly mistaken, CA houses half of the “unsheltered” in the United States and only a quarter of the “homeless.” The unsheltered are highly visible and make up 70% of the total homeless in CA, the highest rate in the nation.

Here is a detailed link from CA: https://shou.senate.ca.gov/sites/shou.senate.ca.gov/files/Ho...