[gamblor956]

The dirty secret about NYC's, SF's, and LA's homeless are that more than 3/4ths of the homeless aren't local, or even regional.

George Lopez at the LA Times used to be a huge advocate of the homeless. And then he tried to do a series of articles about the homeless in Hollywood to highlight their plight and get more people to think like him. When he went out to do his research, it took him over a day interviewing dozens of homeless people to find one who was actually from LA. Less than a quarter were even from California. Needless to say, he's no longer a huge advocate for the homeless.

So yes, it's easy for small towns to talk about how they don't have a homeless problem, because they've shipped their homeless off to the big cities to deal with.

[yencabulator]

I lived in Los Angeles for years and in that time got to know exactly one person who was from Los Angeles (well, Beverly Hills, if you're local). Melting pot cities just simply have people from all over. Including the ones who made a conscious decision to leave small towns in Minnesota that the original commenter thinks are perfect; I knew several.