Federal government reports that there has been a double digit jump in American homelessness compared to last year, and an even bigger jump among families. According to the government's latest data, more than 770,000 people were unhoused [00:00:15] in a single night in 2024, up 18% from the year before and the highest number ever recorded. And those shocking numbers were released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. They looked at the number of homeless people between January of 2023 and January [00:00:33] of 2024, and notice that pretty steep spike in the number of people living on the streets in the United States. Now, what is behind this massive increase in homelessness? Well, if you read most news reports, they just simply say housing prices [00:00:49] are too high, which is true. But what's driving the increase in housing prices? Why is housing so unaffordable? Well, we're about to break that down for you piece by piece. But before we do, there's something that you should keep in mind. So again, this data was collected by taking a snapshot of one night [00:01:07] in January of 2023, and then comparing it to one night in January of 2024. So the numbers are about a year old. And putting that aside, let's dive into what the findings were. So the report on homelessness was again put together by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. [00:01:24] And the numbers are very bleak. So nearly every category of unhoused people grew, with the rise especially steep among children. 33% and people in families 39%. The number of people in shelters rose by about a quarter, while unsheltered [00:01:41] homeless rose 7%. The rise in homelessness among older adults continued as well, with a 6% growth in those 65 or older. Now, much of the report actually focuses on one of the main factors behind this. [00:01:58] So they talk about how the influx of asylum seekers immigrating to the country Has exacerbated the housing crisis because we already had a housing crisis spurred by the shortage [00:02:13] of housing units available. And so here's what they found. Migration had a particularly notable impact on family homelessness, which rose 39% from 2023 to 2024. In the 13 communities that reported being affected by migration, [00:02:29] family homelessness more than doubled. Whereas in the remaining 373 communities, the rise in families experiencing homelessness was less than 8%. So, I mean, this is, in my opinion, just simple numbers, logic, supply and demand. [00:02:45] There was already high demand for limited housing units. And then you introduce a pop an additional population into the country when you haven't really increased the housing inventory. And it's going to, again, exacerbate the problem. [00:03:00] And so during the Biden administration, before he did his executive order for the southern border, He had paroled 1.4 million asylum seekers into the country. Obviously, that's going to have an impact on homelessness when we don't have enough housing to withstand the increase in population. [00:03:18] - Jake. - Yeah. So there's a number of factors that lead to homelessness and the rise in homelessness. So when you look at the different factors, you have to try to separate them out to the best of your ability. So we had a lot of these factors earlier. But when the migrant wave came they the numbers went up. [00:03:34] And so you see that how it adds to the numbers. Right. And you go, okay, that's the difference. And that's why that that doesn't mean the migrant crisis is the only thing causing it. It's just saying that it's causing some significant percentage of the increase that's happening. Right. [00:03:49] So now there's other factors though as well, which is how do you treat folks. And so we're going to get into that a little bit. Do you do housing first or do you try to get them medical treatment or, or, you know, addiction treatment etc.. [00:04:05] And I feel and I think that overall there's some cities that have done a wonderful job. Houston got rid of their bureaucracy. Maine, like Maine, lined it and and and actually got homelessness down by 40% at one point. Utah built houses and got homelessness down significantly at another point. [00:04:23] So we've seen some successes on things that could work. But largely most of the those areas are not doing those successful strategies. They're doing other strategies that just simply aren't working right. And they're also misdirecting a lot of our money and not actually spending it on the homeless. [00:04:39] Exactly. So, you know, California is a good example of that. I know you guys have heard me talk about this repeatedly, because it's really important to prevent this from happening again in the future. You know, California residents allocated $24 billion, increasing their own taxes [00:04:55] in order to solve the homelessness crisis. That money gets funneled to nonprofits, some of which are founded by friends and family members of politicians in California. And let's just say that money did not go to where it was intended to go. [00:05:11] And there have been some audits that have found wrongdoing by a lot of these nonprofits. But nonetheless, to your point, Jake, I think the failure of the Housing First policy is that it kind of it pursues a one size fits all approach to this issue. And this isn't a simple issue. [00:05:27] This is actually a much more complex issue. We do need to build more housing. There's no question about that. But there are people who are struggling on the streets with severe addiction or severe mental health issues. So if you are someone who has a severe mental health condition, right, [00:05:42] let's say paranoid schizophrenia or something like that, you haven't been getting the medical care you need. Just taking you and putting you in a in an apartment unit is not going to solve the problem. And so it is more complicated than I think some of the advocates are making it out to be. [00:05:59] But, you know, going back to the migrant issue, I also want to clarify one thing because it's important. So the data does generally suggest that communities with high immigration levels also experience high levels of homelessness, but homelessness in areas that didn't have high levels of My immigration [00:06:15] also saw an increase. And it's because again, it's the same problem. We don't have enough housing. And if you have high demand, low supply, that's going to drive up housing prices. And when people can't afford it, they end up living in their cars or they end up going to a shelter. That is a huge problem here. [00:06:31] Dennis Culhane, who's a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has long advised the government on homelessness data, said that about three quarters of the increase in homelessness occurred in the four states hit hardest by asylum seekers New York, Illinois, Colorado [00:06:46] and Massachusetts, along with Hawaii. This is the second factor where wildfires in Maui fueled mass displacement. So a lot of these natural disasters are causing problems with homelessness as well. Because people get displaced, there's nowhere for them to turn to. [00:07:02] A lot of them end up in shelters. It's just a disaster all around. Yeah. So to me, there's three clear factors here. The fact that it affected the there was a greater increase in those four states than Anna just mentioned, all who had migrant issues. Right. [00:07:18] But there was not as big an increase in California, which historically has had the most homelessness. Is interesting because the migrants were not shipped to California because they just had the normal number of migrants that crossed the border. Right. So since they were shipped to New York, Colorado, Massachusetts and Illinois, [00:07:35] the homelessness problem increased at a greater rate there. So that's definitely part of what's going wrong here in terms of the increase in homelessness. But the other two issues are also true. So one is we're not directing the money to the right places. [00:07:51] And you could tell because with veterans we do, we actually do a very good job. And the number of veterans that are homeless now have gone down significantly. Okay. And that's because there's bipartisan support for that. Not only does it get more funding, but there's more concern about where the funding goes and the fact that it actually goes to help veterans [00:08:09] as opposed to in California. You don't, you know, you give money to homelessness and it just disappears into a black hole. Right. And never to be seen again. No one ever gets housed. It's just absurd. But it's direct to veterans. It works so the funding can work, but you've got to make sure that it's [00:08:27] actually going to the right place. And then finally on Housing First. That's the third problem, because a lot of folks have tried housing first and they go, don't ask if they've got mental health issues or addiction issues, and they'll just put them into houses first. [00:08:43] But it doesn't address the underlying problem. And almost no one has addressed the mental health crisis. And so there's a lot of talk from our side, the left, about, oh, we've got to address that. But no one ever actually does. Right. They do the housing first, but they never follow up with the mental health funds. [00:09:01] So then yeah, you know, that creates a problem where people don't even stay in the houses. So yeah, like my. Experience with the left's view on this, specifically on those who are struggling with severe mental health, a severe mental health condition is they're in favor of funding [00:09:20] mental health facilities and things like that to their credit. But I think where they fall short is the issue of compulsory inpatient care, and I understand people who are concerned about reverting back to a very [00:09:35] abusive system that we had in this country back in the 1950s and stuff with the, the, the asylums, and they were abusive. But we also have to consider how abusive it is to just leave people who are struggling like that on the streets to die, because that's literally what happens. [00:09:50] Either they die or they do something violent that gets someone else hurt, and then they spend time in prison as a result of that. That's not a solution. Compulsory mental health treatment doesn't have to be what it was in the 1950s. - Yeah, it's. - Look, guys, it's elementary logic. [00:10:06] But it's so maddening because some folks go just stuff them in back into the asylums. Well, obviously that's not the right answer. It was terrible back in the day. Right. But then other folks who say, oh, because it was terrible, it must always be terrible. So we should never get people compulsory help. [00:10:24] But guys, this is not like some weirdo libertarian fantasy where if you don't get that mental health treatment that they're going to magically improve their mental health on the streets, or even if you put them in a facility like a housing facility. It creates problems for the other folks in that facility who don't have mental [00:10:42] health problems and who've got families. ET cetera. No, it has to be compulsory, but it has to be decent. It has to be well funded and compassionate. But having folks just die in the streets is not. You're not a hero, if that's what you think. - It gives them freedom. - I totally agree. [00:11:00] Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows [00:11:19] and specials right after they air. So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you.