Tag: homelessness

US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people

The United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness this year, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country, federal officials said Friday.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said federally required tallies taken across the country in January found that more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless — a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own.

That increase comes on top of a 12% increase in 2023, which HUD blamed on soaring rents and the end of pandemic assistance. The 2023 increase also was driven by people experiencing homelessness for the first time. The numbers overall represent 23 of every 10,000 people in the U.S., with Black people being overrepresented among the homeless population.

“No American should face homelessness, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring every family has access to the affordable, safe, and quality housing they deserve,” HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman said in a statement, adding that the focus should remain on “evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness.”

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In Miami-Dade County, Federal Funding For “Affordable Housing” Displaces Working Class Minorities Of New Republican Coalition In Li’l Abner Trailer Park

One problem with trying to raise opposition to federal funding is that it’s hard to trace bureaucratic causes to human effects. That’s not the case this month in the city of Sweetwater, part of the greater Miami metropolitan area in Miami-Dade County. Here, in a neighborhood where glittering Christmas lights overlap with “Trump/Vance” signs in a county which Trump carried with 55% of the vote, and a state he carried with 56%, around 3,000 people are about to be displaced due to the Washington bureaucracy that Trump ran against. Matters are so bad that talk is that Washington might have to solve the homelessness problem that it helped to cause by using FEMA—an unsettling thought now that we know how FEMA treats Republican voters.

The formal displacer is Raul F. Rodriguez of CREI Holdings, the owner of Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park in Sweetwater, founded by his father, a Cuban immigrant who had grown up in a mobile home himself. But bigger forces are also at play. The main one is amped-up federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to Miami-Dade County, justified because of the seemingly endless and mostly better-off new arrivals escaping failing Democrat cities in New York, Illinois and California. New developments have to be built to house them, sometimes by tearing down buildings, and housing also has to be provided for the working and middle class locals that they are displacing. These new arrivals drive up general costs as well as property taxes, which pushes more locals out and raises the demand for cheaper housing s.

Enter “affordable housing,” which, like “diversity” and “ equity,” is a helpful-sounding phrase that benefits bureaucrats, Democrats, and the better-off. Not surprisingly, in Miami-Dade, “affordable housing” is allowing federal money to flow to citizens who need it the least , even as it supports the projects of well-placed contractors and government bureaucrats . The people most hurt by the funding, in the meantime, are like those in Sweetwater: working class people with nowhere to go. The specifics of the crisis this Christmas in Sweetwater give a sense of just what’s being lost, and why, and what it might mean for Miami-Dade.

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Biden White House Worked Directly with the City of Chicago to Place Immigrants Across the State While Leaving Homeless Chicagoans to Freeze

A recent FOIA request made by Terry Newsome of Behind Enemy Lines revealed that the Biden White House worked directly with the City of Chicago placing immigrants.

Throughout an email chain of 207 pages, City of Chicago officials, FEMA representatives, and a Special Assistant to the President of the United States discuss different locations for placing immigrants across the State of Illinois.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that FEMA had awarded approximately $20 million to the City of Chicago for food service contractors to feed illegal immigrants.

The award timeframe was from October 2022 to December 2024. This article also details the City of Chicago’s ‘Vendor Payments – New Arrivals Mission’ webpage detailing the $574.5 million that has been spent on the immigrant crisis thus far.

It’s relevant to note that the recent trove of FOIA emails between the White House, city officials, and FEMA reference an amount of $20 million being released from an embargo.

This could be the amount that was allocated to food services. However, the recent email chain only discusses placing immigrants in facilities, warming and transporting them in buses, and reports a detailed census on the new arrivals.

Given the context of the recent email chain, it’s plausible that the $20 million referenced could be in addition to the food services funds and reserved for these location and transportation services.

It has been established that the Federal Government has not only allowed the immigrant invasion at the border, but it has also funded it with tax dollars.

It is not surprising that distrust in government is at an all-time high. While Americans in Florida and North Carolina suffer from hurricane fallout, non-citizens are reaping the benefits of shelter, food, clothing, and cell phones.

Most egregious, the unit of government designated to deal with Emergency Response – FEMA – is funding the care for the illegal immigrants.

In other words, the government intentionally created an emergency of illegal immigration, diverted funds away from tax paying Americans who need emergency response, and applied them to non-citizens.

Things get more interesting as Special Assistant to the President of the United States, Molly Ritner, enters the scene.

City of Chicago officials had requested information from the White House on available Federal sites for housing illegals. Special Assistant Ritner provides the following:

“32 federal sites across the State of Illinois were identified as having vacant space — this included review of potential space across federal agencies including DOD.”

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Homeless man admits to torching mailbox, destroying ballots in Phoenix

A homeles Phoenix man was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly set fire to a US Postal Service collection box that contained numerous election ballots. 35-year-old Dieter Klofkorn was charged with one count of arson and booked into Maricopa County jail. He later confessed to the crime.

The Phoenix Fire Department contacted police shortly after 1 am on Thursday after they responded to a fire at a USPS collection box on Seventh Avenue, a press release stated. 

While working on leads in the case, investigators were led to possible suspect Klofkorn. He was arrested on an outstanding and unrelated warrant. While in custody, he admitted to the arson. “Klofkorn stated that he committed the arson because he wanted to be arrested and that his actions were not politically motivated and not related to anything involving the upcoming election,” the press release stated.

Klofkorn was said to have lit a piece of paper on fire and tossed it into the collection box, in which there were around 20 election ballots and other pieces of mail, which were destroyed, according to AZ Central. Social media users claimed that the fire was set by a Republican, with an official Democratic Party account on X spreading the claims. “But yeah, Democrats are the ones doing voter fraud,” wrote the Harris County, Texas Democratic Party X account in response to a post that claimed Klofkorn was a Republican. 

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SF says homeless tents down 60%; homeless haven’t gone anywhere, just tentless

Amid a tightening mayoral race, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced the number of homeless tents have declined 60% since peaking in July 2023. Meanwhile, homeless individuals say they’re still around and have simply ditched their tents to avoid being arrested under the mayor’s new enforcement of anti-camping laws. 

 In July 2023, homeless tents peaked at 609, and homeless vehicles at 1,058. By July 2024, those numbers had declined to 319 and 474, respectively. Since Ninth Circuit overturned a regional ban on enforcement of anti-camping ordinances in July — in a case, then ruling supported by Breed and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — Newsom has since issued an executive order banning encampments from state property and ordered municipal governments to take similar action. 

San Francisco began enforcing anti-camping laws after the ruling, arresting but not detaining homeless individuals who have refused to leave their tents. While there is no data available for August or September, the newly released October count has homeless tents and vehicles down to 242 and 548, declines of 24.1% and 3.4% respectively, since the ruling.

“Every day our City workers are out in San Francisco offering help, bringing people indoors, and cleaning up our neighborhoods and we are seeing the results,” said Breed in a statement. “We are a compassionate City that leads with services, but we also will continue to enforce our laws when those offers are rejected.”

According to the San Francisco Standard, homeless individuals are leaving their tents to avoid arrest, but are still remaining on the streets; Standard reporters found no increase in utilization of shelter or bus tickets elsewhere.

Breed and her two opponents are neck and neck, with Levi Strauss heir and homelessness expert Daniel Lurie holding a narrow lead at 51% if the election were held today in the city’s ranked-choice voting system that allows voters to rank their first 10 choices for a given office. The candidate with the least amount of votes is dropped in each round, with that candidate’s votes distributed to voters’ next preference on their ballot, until a candidate has a majority.

While Breed would get 38% of first-round votes and Lurie just 21%, Lurie’s popularity as citizen’s second choice brings him to 51% by the fourth-round. Aaron Peskin, who sits on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and thus has one of the consolidated city-county’s most powerful positions, nearly tied Lurie in earlier rounds of voting in the survey, but fell behind due to Lurie’s hold as voters’ popular second choice. 

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California County Fines Man $120,000 for Refusing to Evict a Family From His Property

Hundreds of people live in trailers and campers on the streets of Santa Clara County, California—a very visible sign of the ultra-expensive county’s homelessness crisis.

Despite the scale of vehicular homelessness in the county, county officials have spent years focusing their enforcement actions on a single trailer parked on private property.

For years now, winery owner Michael Ballard has allowed his longtime vineyard manager, Marcelino Martinez, and his family to live rent-free in a trailer parked on the winery’s property.

County officials say this violates a county ordinance prohibiting recreational vehicles (RVs) parked on residential parcels from being used as dwelling units. Therefore, Martinez’s trailer has got to go.

Ballard has been trying to fix the violation by building a permanent home for Martinez and his family on the property. But getting all the needed permits from the county for that home has taken years.

In the interim, Ballard has refused to evict Martinez’s family from the property.

“I’m not going to remove this trailer because that will cause them to be homeless and I’d be putting this family on the street and I’m not going to do that,” Ballard tells Reason.

In response, the county has issued Ballard daily fines for every day he refuses to remove the trailer. These fines total some $120,000.

Ballard is now suing the county in federal court, arguing the fines violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on excessive fines.

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Newsom issues executive order for removal of homeless encampments in California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Thursday to direct state agencies on how to remove homeless encampments, a month after a Supreme Court ruling allowing cities to enforce bans on sleeping outside in public spaces.

Newsom’s order is aimed at the thousands of tents and makeshift shelters across the state that line freeways, clutter shopping center parking lots and fill city parks. The order makes clear that the decision to remove the encampments remains in local hands.

The order comes after a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this summer allowing cities to enforce bans on sleeping outside in public spaces. The case was the most significant on the issue to come before the high court in decades and comes as cities across the country have wrestled with the politically complicated issue of how to deal with a rising number of people without a permanent place to live and public frustration over related health and safety issues.

“There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part,” Newsom said in a statement.

While Newsom cannot order local authorities to act, his administration can apply pressure by withholding money for counties and cities.

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Portland enforces homeless camping ban after SCOTUS ruling, county continues giving out tents

After Portland, Oregon, announced it would implement a ban on homeless street camping and impose fines or jail time for those who refuse shelter, Multnomah County says will continue distributing tents and tarps to homeless individuals despite the city’s efforts. The news comes just as the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that cities can remove homeless encampments from public property.  

On Monday, the city announced that it would start enforcing the new ban which applies to any homeless person offered reasonable shelter who refuses. Violators could be fined $100 or jailed. The ban also prioritizes targeting camps that pose significant health and safety risks in the community.  

Despite the city’s ban, the county will keep handing out tents and tarps, aiding those living on the streets, according to Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, per KATU News.   

“We’re not stopping handing out tents and tarps. We’re just not going to be purchasing any more,” said Pederson. “We do have supplies on hand that are sufficient for the needs we have right now.”  

On Wednesday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler criticized the county’s actions, explaining, “It doesn’t make any sense that with 6,000 homeless people on our streets that we would hand out more than 6,000 tents and nearly five times that many tarps.”  

The city and county are currently in the middle of negotiating a three-year homeless response plan. Pederson emphasized she wouldn’t be pressured to stop distributing tents and tarps to reach a new deal.   

“If anyone was going to be using this to have an ultimatum about what our policy was going to be, that’s not something I was going to stand for,” she said.  

Responding to questions from KATU about the city and county’s relationship, with the county distributing tents and the city enforcing the ban, Pederson remarked, “I think it’s a sign of where we are right now, where we don’t have enough capacity within our existing system for shelter.”  

Mayor Wheeler responded to the same line of questioning, stating, “I think it says you have two separate governments.”  

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Supreme Court allows cities to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside

The Supreme Court decided on Friday that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, even in West Coast areas where shelter space is lacking.

The case is the most significant to come before the high court in decades on the issue and comes as a rising number of people in the U.S. are without a permanent place to live.

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the high court reversed a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court that found outdoor sleeping bans amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The majority found that the 8th Amendment prohibition does not extend to bans on outdoor sleeping bans.

“Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. “A handful of federal judges cannot begin to ‘match’ the collective wisdom the American people possess in deciding ‘how best to handle’ a pressing social question like homelessness.”

He suggested that people who have no choice but to sleep outdoors could raise that as a “necessity defense,” if they are ticketed or otherwise punished for violating a camping ban.

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Homelessness After Age 50 Is Rising

Imagine you are 82 years old, barely making ends meet on a fixed Social Security check and getting a $1,300 bill to fix a burst water pipe. Imagine being 51, years away from Social Security, and losing your low-wage job because a new medical diagnosis forces you to give up your driver’s license in a place with no public transit. Or imagine being 70, experiencing memory loss and forgetting to pay your bills.

In these all-too-common scenarios, eviction and homelessness lurk around the corner. People aged 50 and older are the fastest-growing group of people experiencing homeless in the United States. They make up nearly half of the homeless population, and their numbers are estimated to triple by 2030.

Some older adults have been on the brink of or experienced homelessness at some point during their lives, especially if they struggled to find stable, good-paying jobs or if they suffer from substance use or mental health disorders.

Meanwhile, recent years have witnessed an alarming increase in the number of Americans over 50 experiencing homelessness for the first time. When they should be enjoying some hard-earned rest after decades of work, too many are losing their homes and ending up in shelters or on the streets.

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