30% of all people who are homeless in the United States live in California. That state has a to-die-for climate (a good deal of the time anyway). It’s easy to imagine California as an ideal place to celebrate homelessness as a deliberate lifestyle choice for addled drug and sunshine addicts.
Okay, so let their good times roll . . . maybe. But surely not if such a free ride requires subsidizing by hardworking California taxpayer dollars.
But now a comprehensive study from the University of California San Francisco (USCF) gives the lie to a myth of carefree good times as a significant motivator for homelessness.
The Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI):
“. . .released the largest representative study of homelessness in the United States since the mid-1990s, providing a comprehensive look at the causes and consequences of homelessness in California and recommending policy changes to shape programs in response.”
Basing the final report on hundreds of in-depth interviews and thousands of survey responses, Margot Kushel, Director of the BHHI, says:
“. . . far too many Californians experience homelessness because they cannot afford housing”
This study provides supporting evidence for homelessness first and foremost as a housing issue. It largely dismisses casual and convenient characterizations of defective and/or indulgent individuals generally unworthy of physical or financial support. Such characterizations can be encountered world-wide in cities, states and countries that prefer to avoid facing the cost of housing remedies as meaningful solutions to homeless crises everywhere.
Read more about the study at UCSF: California Statewide Study Investigates Causes and Impacts of Homelessness
The study itself is also available on line from UCSF: California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness
