Yall not looking at the whole picture
You see the crazy/drugged out homeless people on the streets but there's many homeless who do everything they can to not be grouped with those other homeless folk i.e. homeless students, young women, people who just fell through the cracks. They shower at the gym, they never sleep on benches or in public during the day, they sleep in their cars, they work jobs, they sleep at friends houses when they can.
Long Beach city college has their parking lot open overnight to let homeless students sleep there. Some people just fell behind on rent and ended up assed out. Got kicked out by their mom at 18 and ended up assed out. They become druggies and alcoholics AFTER they become homeless because they kick it with other young homeless people and drink/smoke away the pain. People don't want to admit it because it's scary and it could happen to them.
I don't understand how we can have so many threads about how many people are "one $400 emergency away from disaster" or how many parents kick their kids out the minute they turn 18 and everyone agrees those are very real issues but when it comes to a rising homeless population all of a sudden it's they just junkies or lazy as if there's zero correlation.
IIRC, to live in Los Angeles you need to make $40/hr just to afford a 2bd/1bth. Very few jobs pay that much. Yes, even the ones that require degrees. To give an example, the average teacher makes about $27.50/hr. That puts them at a near $13/hr deficit or rather, a monthly deficit of $2k. In major metros it is EXTREMLY EASY to fall into poverty and homelessness even
with a job, ambition and zero drug use.
But people just regurgitate Reagan era Republican talking points without having any idea of what's really going on and not knowing the state/local government actually makes more money the more they criminalize and penalize poverty, while simultaneously
ensuring more and more people are impoverished.
Lost your apartment because your student loans skyrocketed to an additional $600 or your landlord decided to increase the rent by $1k so now you sleep in your car instead? Well too bad, the City of Santa Monica just impounded your shyt and ticketed you for "loitering". You're broke as hell so you can't afford the impound fees meaning you no longer even have a car but wait, there's more! Lacking a car, you now have to go from pillar to post and couch surf or worse, sleep on the street. You don't have a permanent address either so you never get the paperwork meaning you miss your court date. Oops, now you've got a warrant out and the next time you're caught "loitering" you simply go straight to jail. And the more inmates they have the more funding they get.
But like you said, that's a scary fact and people want to tell themselves comforting stories about it could
never be THEM.
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