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Comment by rigata | Hacker News Reader

It’s been a known problem for a while now.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/21/nevada...

South Park made an episode about it with the song “California loves the homeless”.

https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/California_Loves_the_Homel...

California largely has weather that you can survive outdoor in year round and social programs that provide for and policies that show empathy for homelessness.

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I believed this when I lived in California. Now I’m not so sure: it is true that people without shelter can easily die in much of the country, but California isn’t the only place with mild winters. Why don’t Arizona, New Mexico, large parts of Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, etc. have the same problem?

Assuming that California will just naturally have a larger homeless population than everywhere else means that nobody will spend much effort trying to solve the problem. Is it possible that California is just unusually bad when it comes to handling homelessness?

I think its the second part of the last sentence you missed. California has empathetic social services. But also 4 of those states have harsh summers. Some just have small populations in general. The biggest city in alabama has only 200k people. California has multiple major city areas

Coastal California is typically cooler than all of the states you mentioned in summer and warmer in einter. The other states have their own homeless populations- even Minneapolis get encampments that last into winter- but none are as favorable to outdoor survival and comfort as the southern Pacific Coast.

Also, california spends much more than all of the other states on providing assistance to the homeless, and is far more tolerant of bad behavior (public drug use, drunkeness, defecation, etc).

California isn't bad at handling the homeless so much as it is bad at getting the homeless to become housed, mentally and financially stable.

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