According to the latest study (Dec 2017), homelessness in the US rose for the first time since the "Great Recession". Experts say the rise was propelled by rising home prices and rents on the west coast. Several cities including Seattle have declared homeless emergencies. One Seattle street resident told interviewers, “Most homeless people I know aren’t homeless because they’re addicts, Most people are homeless because they can’t afford a place to live.” A lecturer at San Jose State University, has been sleeping out of a car for about a decade, ever since she lost her housing while an undergraduate at the school. She now teaches four English courses, a job that pays $28,000 a year. Home is an old Volvo. When she could not find a job in the tech industry, she went back to school to obtain a college degree. Now she owes tens of thousands of dollars for student loans. AP found 168,000 homeless living in California, Oregon and Washington, 19,000 more than two years ago. The number of those unsheltered has climbed 18%.
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| AP: Father & son in Portland, OR. A few miles away the city owns a former US Army Reserve building that was used as a temporary homeless shelter until neighbors cried NIMBY. It now stands empty. |