"People are less likely to walk up and kick you in the face if you’re sleeping during the day.”

- Orlando Ward

We are in the third longest economic expansions in American history. Unemployment is at a 17 year low. The stock and bond markets are at all-time highs.

So naturally, the working class is being crushed.



America’s homeless population has risen this year for the first time since the Great Recession, propelled by the housing crisis afflicting the west coast, according to a new federal study.

The study has found that 553,742 people were homeless on a single night this year, a 0.7% increase over last year. It suggests that despite a fizzy stock market and a burgeoning gross domestic product, the poorest Americans are still struggling to meet their most basic needs.

193,000 people had no access to nightly shelter and thus were on the street. The unsheltered figure is up by more than 9 percent compared to two years ago.

Not surprisingly, the homelessness rate among veterans also rose, while the Trump Administration was looking to cut the program meant to end homeless veterans.

There is no secret about why this is happening. The real estate company Zillow explained the relationship a few months ago, and what we can look forward to.



Their numbers will continue to climb as Los Angeles’ rents do, unless the tie between rising rents and the growing homeless population is broken. Our new research shows that a 5 percent average rent increase in that area would mean almost 2,000 more people who do not have places to live – and in Los Angeles, that often means being on the streets. Only 25 percent of people who experienced homelessness in Los Angeles in 2016 were sheltered in any way, according to HUD.

In New York, our model shows the relationship is even stronger: Nearly 3,000 more people would fall into homelessness with a 5 percent average rent increase.

Most blame not enough homes being built (i.e not enough capitalism), while ignoring the fact that there are nearly three times the number of empty homes as there is homeless.



ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation's largest multi-sourced property database, today released its 2017 U.S. Residential Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, which shows nearly 1.4 million (1,367,793) U.S. residential properties (1 to 4 units) were vacant as of the end of the third quarter of 2017 — representing 1.58 percent of all U.S. residential properties.

...Nationwide more than 1 million non-owner occupied (investment) residential properties (1,032,851) were vacant, representing 4.30 percent of all non-owner occupied residential properties and unchanged from a year ago.

Let's say more homes are built. What's to stop them from staying empty?

The rising homelessness rate also translates directly into a rising hepatitis A outbreak.