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Relatives? Kids? Friends?

Essentially people are not really fungible. There are costs associated with migration.

It turns out, being poor is very expensive and when you have no money, you have no money to start over somewhere else.

These articles always find insane numbers. People pack into apartments and houses before leaving. I lived in Santa Clara right near the Caltrain tracks, which is in no way a ghetto area. But 2-3 bedroom apartments frequently had 4 or more cars and ~2-4 adults and 1-2 kids. Our apartment was a 3 bedroom 2 bath and was 2500 and we had 3 of us and 3 cars. This was my first apartment after college with two friends, was cheap for me as a junior dev.

Again, with what money? And simply driving away to somewhere else doesn't mean there's going to be a job there that will let you afford an apartment.