[hifromLA]

I buy into the idea that high housing costs are the #1 reason, but I do want to point out that mild weather increases the visibility of the homeless population.

For most Americans, when they think of homeless people they don’t really care as long as they are out of sight and out of mind. So I believe that’s where the misconception comes from.

[sopchi]

You bring up visibility of the homeless, that is one thing, but it is besides parent's point. There are government statistics on the homeless population and California has a huge share of it. See the 2022 HUD report [1] (also note the distinction between homeless and unsheltered):

• More than half of all people experiencing homelessness in the country were in four states: California (30% or 171,521 people); New York (13% or 74,178 people); Florida (5% or 25,959 people); and Washington (4% or 25,211).

• California accounted for half of all unsheltered people in the country (115,491 people). This is more than nine times the number of unsheltered people in the state with the next highest number, Washington. In the 2022 point-in-time count, Washington reported 12,668 people or just six percent of the national total of people in unsheltered locations.

[1] page 16 of https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2022-...

[davidw]

Absolute numbers are not very useful. You want to look at per capita statistics, which the link I posted does. It's worth a read.

[sopchi]

For sure. I was just bringing numbers to support the >25% number claimed higher, and that it is not a matter of visibility. I frequently find people seem to think the homeless are simply more visible in California.

Also didn't want to copy paste the whole page, thinking people here know that California's population is nowhere near half or even 30% of the US population. The link I shared has on page 16 a map that addresses your point, and also on the same page:

• California also had the highest rate of homelessness, with 44 people experiencing homelessness out of every 10,000 people in the state.

The link you posted is interesting. It does take numbers form a variety of different sources and it is difficult to know if the methodologies are always comparable. That page uses HUD numbers (and the map I am pointing to) as one of the sources. The states ranking it gives for homeless per capita is from 2019 (prepandemic), and different from the one HUD has in their latest report.