We also happen to have an extremely serious homelessness problem, which is not relegated to CA.
Go to any warm state in the country and ride through the parking lots at night. If you are the observant type, you should see an astonishing number of folks living in their vehicles.
And home ownership is not only downward, but no longer part of the American dream for most people now. Storage facilities for many, are a place to lay down, or rent hope that things won't always be "this way".
We need to fix this. It's not just drugs and mental problems anymore.
It is very interesting that in most big cities around the world, but especially Europe having a car is a big luxury while in the US homeless people have cars.
And that per capita Europe has a bigger unhoused problem than the United States. There aren't simple solutions, because the real solutions would change how society needs to work. Maybe less about money and more about the right to survive or something.
If you want to split up Europe to make the comparison favorable, split up the US to make it less favorable again. How many US states are below the per capita level of homelessness in the US?
Ok fine I went and calculated the aggregate numbers and indeed the homelessness per capita in Europe (EU) is higher than the US
EU:
1.1 million homeless people
<a href="https://www.feantsa.org/files/Themes/Overview/2025/ex_summary_2025.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.feantsa.org/files/Themes/Overview/2025/ex_summar...
Divided by a population of 451,990,314
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_Union" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_U...
= 0.00243
US:
745,652 homeless people
<a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2025-AHAR-Part-1.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2025-...
Divided by a population of 341,784,857
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta...
eth0up · · focus · HN ↗
Go to any warm state in the country and ride through the parking lots at night. If you are the observant type, you should see an astonishing number of folks living in their vehicles.
And home ownership is not only downward, but no longer part of the American dream for most people now. Storage facilities for many, are a place to lay down, or rent hope that things won't always be "this way".
We need to fix this. It's not just drugs and mental problems anymore.
DanielHB · · focus · HN ↗
AbsurdCensor · · focus · HN ↗
huurtehoog · · focus · HN ↗
pessimizer · · focus · HN ↗
huurtehoog · · focus · HN ↗
EU:
1.1 million homeless people <a href="https://www.feantsa.org/files/Themes/Overview/2025/ex_summary_2025.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.feantsa.org/files/Themes/Overview/2025/ex_summar...
Divided by a population of 451,990,314 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_Union" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_U...
= 0.00243
US:
745,652 homeless people <a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2025-AHAR-Part-1.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2025-...
Divided by a population of 341,784,857 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta...
= 0.00218