Can't get over how incredibly clean and bum-free Dallas is

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by eschaton

To generalize about the homeless population across regions:

1. The West has the highest number of homeless people (both per capita and in absolute numbers). Most of the homeless population is unsheltered, leading to large tent encampments.

2. The Northeast has the second-highest number of homeless people, but most homeless people are sheltered. You might see them begging for change, but they don't sleep on the streets overnight.

3. The South has comparably few homeless people, but also spends very little on services, so to the extent they exist, they often live unsheltered.

4. The Midwest has few homeless people per capita, and out of that population, very few are unsheltered.

It's also worth noting in Sun Belt cities a lot of areas which are traditionally thought of as "public" are in fact privately owned, which means evicting the homeless is a fairly straightforward thing.

And I think what we're really talking about is "unsheltered" people. I'm skeptical that anyone would be paying much attention to the issue if all else was the same but the unhoused people were sleeping in shelters or hotels rather than in tent cities.