Fact Check

Based on currently available numbers, there are about 31 vacant housing units for every homeless person in the U.S.

  • morrowind@lemmy.ml
    243·
    4 months ago

    Yes, and

    • second homes of rich people
    • Airbnbs which probably have a higher natural vacancy
    • damaged and unfit housing
    • useless houses in the bumfuck nowhere

    You may disagree with some of these existing (especially 1), but still vacant =/= homeless people can or want to move in tomorrow

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
      191·
      4 months ago

      damaged and unfit housing

      This one can not be overstated. I drive past many of these on my way to work every day. Many of them are damaged and unfit because someone died, and no one wants to move out to bumfuck nowhere, even if the house is cheap. So they just rot. Even when I lived in Chicago, there were always houses that had just been allowed to fall apart through lack of maintenance, houses that had become too expensive to either repair, or demolish and re-build.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
      2·
      4 months ago

      useless houses in the bumfuck nowhere

      I would like to contribute that this covers all of suburbia, from a logistical standpoint. None of that is walking distance to, well, anything. So our homeless person trying to get on their feet will also need a car and insurance, or a whole heap of bus passes (assuming the bus even goes there).