I'm not of the Left. So you know where I'm come from.
That said people who are living on the street are frequently deeply alone in way that can be hard to understand. Substance abuse problems. Mental problems. Sure all of that. No place to live too.
All of that's a huge burden. On top of that the jobs that get listed are frequently not going to be offering 30 hours or less a week.
So the way to think of people in that place is that they've got a job. - getting alcohol or drugs. They might have another job - having an incomplete view of reality. On top of that and I would say this most of all, they are frequently alienated from any friend or family.
It's hard in that place to say find 20 or 30 hours (if you're lucky) a week to bring in extra cash. It's doubly hard when your expenses are basically everything you have and everything you can get your hands on.
As I said earlier I'm not on the Left. I think there's an established view that says the problem here is mental problems of one sort or another leading to homelessness and unemployment. It's not that I think that's untrue but that the description is incomplete. It looks at a profound loss and describes a physical situation - even when talking about substance abuse and mental problems there's a clinical view that will help no one. In my opinion at least. Certainly I'm out of step.
The people you're talking about are usually referred to as the "chronically" homeless and are a minority (but highly visible) section of the overall homeless population. We know that the best way to help these people that's been found so far are the so called "housing first" policies, which save taxpayer money in law enforcement and medical bills by finding permanent supportive housing for the people that need it.
A majority of people who are homeless are not drug addicts or mentally ill. They're just fucked over by an economy that has no floor with too few places for too many people to stay. Most people who find themselves homeless are only homeless for short stretches, and often have jobs and pay their taxes while they live out of tents, cars, and RVs.
I don't want to discount the challenges and pain associated with being homeless but your observations don't really explain the explosion of homelessness in some places.
Something else has changed in the last 4-5 years to make this problem much worse.
If you mean the West Coast, it was the 9th Circuit court ruling in Martin v. Boise that brought about the visible camping. That ruling states that a city can’t penalize someone for sleeping in public if they can’t provide a meaningful alternative. Most West Coast cities don’t have nearly enough shelter space available, and they have interpreted the ruling to mean that they cannot enforce camping bans at all - presumably to reduce the risk of being sued.
I imagine there are multiple methodologies to measure this because it's hard to even get a handle on how many people are homeless. The point still stands: "they're all just so mentally ill they like to live on the streets" won't wash as an explanation.
That said people who are living on the street are frequently deeply alone in way that can be hard to understand. Substance abuse problems. Mental problems. Sure all of that. No place to live too.
All of that's a huge burden. On top of that the jobs that get listed are frequently not going to be offering 30 hours or less a week.
So the way to think of people in that place is that they've got a job. - getting alcohol or drugs. They might have another job - having an incomplete view of reality. On top of that and I would say this most of all, they are frequently alienated from any friend or family.
It's hard in that place to say find 20 or 30 hours (if you're lucky) a week to bring in extra cash. It's doubly hard when your expenses are basically everything you have and everything you can get your hands on.
As I said earlier I'm not on the Left. I think there's an established view that says the problem here is mental problems of one sort or another leading to homelessness and unemployment. It's not that I think that's untrue but that the description is incomplete. It looks at a profound loss and describes a physical situation - even when talking about substance abuse and mental problems there's a clinical view that will help no one. In my opinion at least. Certainly I'm out of step.