7 states have the worst homelessness crises in the US, also have some of the most expensive housing

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These 7 states have the worst homelessness crises in the US. They also have some of the most expensive housing.
Aria Bendix

Nov. 21, 2018, 1:12 PM
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"I miss my kitchen. I miss my kid," said Christian McKenzie, a homeless woman in Seattle.
Jae C. Hong/AP


Talk of homelessness in America tends to center on the most visible crises: open-air drug markets in San Francisco, crowded encampments in Los Angeles, cardboard shelters in New York, and tent cities in Seattle.

But even these harrowing conditions don't capture the full scope of homelessness in the US.

Although homelessness is declining by around 14% nationwide, 16 states have seen their homeless populations increase since 2007. In that time, states with a relatively small number of homeless residents like Wyoming and South Dakota have seen an increase of more than 62%. North Dakota, meanwhile, has seen a troubling 71% rise in its homeless population.

Read more: San Francisco's 'cruel and inhuman' homelessness crisis is a human rights violation

One way to evaluate the extent of homelessness in America is to look at the share of homeless residents relative to a state's population size. This controls for the fact that states with more residents tend to have higher homeless populations. It also gives an indication of some of the nation's worst crises, where restrictive policies or a lack of affordable housing may contribute to the large number of people living on the streets.

We crunched the data for the share of homeless residents across all 50 states in America. Here's what homelessness looks like in the seven states with the worst crises (which also have some of the highest housing costs in the US).

District of Columbia
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A homeless woman on Constitution Avenue tries to keep warm during a storm.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
When it comes to the overall share of homeless residents, no state can compare to Washington, DC. Of the district's 694,000 residents, around 7,500 are homeless — a share that amounts to more than 1%. While this may not seem like a lot, it's more than three times the share in California, a state with nearly 57 times the population size.

An analysis from a local homeless services organization, Thrive DC, finds that three-quarters of their clients in DC have been homeless for more than a year. Though many of the people they serve are victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, the organization points to a lack of affordable housing and rising rental prices as the two biggest obstacles to ending homelessness in the district.

Hawaii
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A homeless man sleeps on a picnic table at Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Kat Wade/Getty Images
In 2015, Hawaii's rising homelessness crisis prompted Governor David Ige to proclaim a state of emergency. As part of the proclamation, Ige made it illegal to sit or lie down on sidewalks and commissioned social workers to move homeless residents off the streets and into shelters.

The policy hasn't done much to curb homelessness in Hawaii, which has the second highest share of homeless residents relative to its population size. From 2007 to 2017, Hawaii saw a 19% increase in its number of homeless citizens — one of the biggest upticks in the country.

New York
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A man sleeps on stairs in Manhattan during winter.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
With around 89,500 homeless residents, New York's overall share is the third highest in the country. The majority of the state's homeless — around 77,000 residents — hail from New York City, where a lack of affordable housing has left many citizens without a permanent place to live.

Though the city has seen a 43% increase in homelessness in the last decade, not all of its homeless residents are living on the streets or in makeshift dwellings like cars and tents. An official city countfound that only one in 20 New York City homeless residents sleep without a roof over their heads. The rest are housed in the city's numerous shelters, which contain more homeless residents than shelters in California, Oregon, and Washington combined.

California
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A homeless woman stands with her belongings in Los Angeles.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Less than 1% of California residents are homeless, but the state represents nearly a quarter of the nation's homeless population. That's because California is home to four of the top ten cities for homelessness in the country: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and San Jose.

The crisis in San Francisco is by far the most acute, with United Nations Special Rapporteur Leilani Farha calling it a "human rights violation" and "a cruelty that is unsurpassed."

The situation in Los Angeles is close behind: On any given night, around 1,800 people congregate in Skid Row, a dilapidated homeless encampmentthat's riddled with drugs, crime, and disease.


Oregon

A couple sleeps on the street in downtown Portland.
Ted S. Warren/AP
Oregon has seen a nearly 21% decline in its homeless population in the last decade, but it still ranks fifth in the nation in terms of its share of homeless residents.

Earlier this year, the Portland Police Association criticized Mayor Ted Wheeler for placing the responsibility to curb homelessness on the shoulders of police officers.

"Our City has become a cesspool," the association wrote on Facebook. "The Portland Police Bureau has not been given nearly enough resources to fulfill its small piece in addressing the homelessness crisis."

The city later estimated that it would require as much as $640 million to build just 2,000 units of supportive housing in the next ten years.

Washington
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A woman holds her two-year-old son at one of Seattle's tent cities.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Washington has about as many homeless residents as Oregon and DC combined — around 21,000 — but its share of homeless residents is smaller when compared to its population size.

Much of the state's homeless population is concentrated in Seattle, where homelessness has risen by 9% each year since 2014. Though the surrounding King County set aside a ten-year plan to combat homelessness, the deadline has come and gone, and the crisis shows no sign of slowing down.

In recent years, Seattle has become known for its tent cities, or large homeless encampments that are sanctioned by the government. These communities provide critical shelter for residents, who might otherwise face violence on the streets.


Nevada
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A homeless man sleeps at an encampment along Las Vegas Boulevard.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Nevada has a greater share of homeless residents than Texas, a state more than nine times its size. The vast majority of Nevada's 7,800 homeless residents hail from Las Vegas, where homelessness appears to be on the rise, despite a 9.4% statewide decline over the last decade.

Much of the issue seems to stem from the city's rental crisis, which has caused 86% percent of extremely low income households to become cost-burdened. Rather than cracking down on homeless encampments, the city has opted to buy up some of this land and build legal courtyards and facilities for the homeless.

In the future, it will have to contend with the real root of the problem: a lack of affordable housing.
 
Damn bro.

Please elaborate if you can because here in Houston there are tons of homeless and there seems to be hierarchy within the homeless.

Glad to hear you are back on your feet.


*two cents*
Yeah its literally an underworld they have their own slang and special spots they gather. I dared not get too deep into that part because I wouldn't be here to type this now. I just stayed in a shelter for 2 and a half months for personal reasons, I really didn't have to but I needed the cool down time to keep me from doing something drastic. I worked there to earn my keep, 3 hots and a cot they say. Still in the situation because it involved family, been almost 9 years, don't know how its going to end but I just take it day by day.
 
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Not going into too much detail too personal and I'm still in it. All I can say is it can happen to anyone, never saw the day where I would have to hit the streets. Always liked the ending to John Wick 2, all alone surrounded by enemies nowhere to go, I could relate.
 
Not going into too much detail too personal and I'm still in it. All I can say is it can happen to anyone, never saw the day where I would have to hit the streets. Always liked the ending to John Wick 2, all alone surrounded by enemies nowhere to go, I could relate.
A person would rather be homeless than be in prison. With certain laws in difference places they are trying to make poverty against the law. Image a law where you are fined or ticketed for sharing food or for sitting in one place to long. Then people pitch tents in the woods and they go out there looking for them. It could have a lot to do with trash and stuff that would be left behind. But there is some kind of catch to this. It is like the cells are programmed.
We were born in a world that worships war. And you have to build up military to protect your perspectives and what you have. Jesus preached love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for those that spitefully use you. But nations come to power because of disobeying that. The more they disobey it the more power they get. For some reason they did not want Jesus in society, they did not want him in prison any more, they just wanted him dead.
If you are still in that homeless poverty it is becoming more and more widespread. People panhandling in certain places. But a lot of them are able to stay out of jail or prison and that is good. I understand getting what you can but every now and then when you have some money to spare try going to the health food store and trying some bee pollen, bee propolis, and royal jelly. It is great energy food. There is certain mysteries to energy and certain questions we are afraid to ask about it. I hope to prove certain things in the near future about real energy and real love. I really believe that when I come up everybody will start coming up. The reason why I say that is because I am going to break the curses of poverty as well as a lot of other curses and spells people are under without them knowing it. Even the curse of death. A lot of people think that eternal life is impossible. Even with Jesus preaching it but whites narrating it. If he meant it literally, then they can change all that by getting rid of him. But everybody fears death but spend most of their life promoting their death. Blacks have lost their original way of life. We originally only ate raw fruits and vegetables. And not plants poisoned by our enemies. But today babies are being raised not by the breast but by chemicals. We start them out with a mild drug called sugar. So their is certain reasons why people start out with borrowed energy. And are raised up to learn how to borrow more and more. The system is designed that way. There genes (whites) are weaker than ours so there is no danger of escaping the control with them having money and resources to live health and wealth.
 
Atlanta homeless off the chains!!!! I was just in Hawaii early this year and saw it there. My Uber driver told me people are buying (don’t know how) one way flights to the island to be homeless. He said a lot of are kids in the surf/beach life. Tent cities pop up and cops invade and they move to another beach.
 
Always weird when a city (DC) is compared to states....would like to see DC's rank against other cities, its more natural peers....there is no reason for homelessness in a country as wealthy as this one and there is no need for these insane housing prices either...but the system benefits who it needs to benefit so there will be no change
 
I've been living out of my car at times in life but I knew as long as I was working I'd be okay.

There's a whole unseen culture in this area (Atlanta). I was out in Dunwoody for safety and I wasn't the only one. Saw a dude sleeping in his Benz like he lost everything else in divorce or gambling or something.

I pushed through it and got shit straight...really puts life in perspective in many ways.
 
Trump's tax cut should fix this.
UHN!!! :yes:

This guy gets it. He gets it, folks. Some say, and I’m not joking, that he may, possibly, get it more-much more-than any other person, quite honestly, that I know. And I know a lot of people. Believe me. People know me that I don’t know, but of the people who do know me, I know a lot of them and this guy, Flawless, he gets it.
 
Not going into too much detail too personal and I'm still in it. All I can say is it can happen to anyone, never saw the day where I would have to hit the streets. Always liked the ending to John Wick 2, all alone surrounded by enemies nowhere to go, I could relate.
Yeah. A lot of people don’t understand how close to homelessness you can be. All it takes is a loss of a job, any type of debilitating, chronic health ailment, mental health crisis, or bad family situation and you can find yourself homeless. It happens all the time. I pray all will go in your favor soon, brother. Keep your head up.
 
Always weird when a city (DC) is compared to states....would like to see DC's rank against other cities, its more natural peers....there is no reason for homelessness in a country as wealthy as this one and there is no need for these insane housing prices either...but the system benefits who it needs to benefit so there will be no change
You got to have have’s and have nots...:smh: I can’t stand it. Life is so simple but yet the haves make it so hard. :smh:
 
Always weird when a city (DC) is compared to states....would like to see DC's rank against other cities, its more natural peers....there is no reason for homelessness in a country as wealthy as this one and there is no need for these insane housing prices either...but the system benefits who it needs to benefit so there will be no change
There's a documentary, I just saw called Owned. Detailed about home ownership and how the public was swayed into where we are today. Learned alot from it. Unfortunately it didn't provide a solution, and strongly believe by year's end this housing bubble will burst, again.

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Yeah its literally an underworld they have their own slang and special spots they gather. I dared not get too deep into that part because I wouldn't be here type this now. I just stayed in a shelter for 2 and a half months for personal reasons, I really didn't have too but I needed the cool down time to keep me from doing something drastic. I worked there to earn my keep, 3 hots and a cot they say. Still in the situation because it involved family, been almost 9 years, don't know how its going to end but I just take it day by day.
I filmed the "Street Resident" video at a homeless shelter, and donated money to the shelter. The stories I was told during breaks were heartbreaking!
 
Was homeless myself while in the A. like 850 said, long as u working some kinda job it ain’t too too bad. It messes with u tho. U gotta really focus. U learn to smile and not mean it. The emptiness, shame and frustration…..it ain’t cool. But I learned a lot. Props to all y’all on here who have made it out of that
 
Was homeless myself while in the A. like 850 said, long as u working some kinda job it ain’t too too bad. It messes with u tho. U gotta really focus. U learn to smile and not mean it. The emptiness, shame and frustration…..it ain’t cool. But I learned a lot. Props to all y’all on here who have made it out of that
One homeless dude once told me, that you can tell who the newbies are, because for the first week or so, they cry themselves to sleep.
 
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