Today’s links Why are so many Californians homeless?: It’s not “homeless migration.” Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2008, 2013 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Why are so many Californians homeless? (permalink) 12% of Americans live in California – but 30% of homeless Americans, and 50% of unsheltered Americans, call California “home.” This is the source of endless schadenfreude from “red state” partisans, and is often waved as proof of the failure of liberal policies. But the real story is both more complicated – and simpler. UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative’s “California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness” is the largest, best study of homelessness in California in some 30 years: https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/our-studies/california-statewide-study-people-experiencing-homelessness Between Oct 2021 and Nov 2022, researchers surveyed a representative sample of 3,198 people, and conducted in-depth interviews with 365 more. They concluded that, contrary to popular folk-stories about “homeless migration” by out-of-staters seeking an easy life on California’s streets, “people experiencing homelessness in California are Californian.” Nine tenths of respondents were already living in California when they lost their housing. It’s also not true that homeless people move to LA or San Francisco from out of town: three quarters of participants live in the same county they were living in when they lost their homes. So California’s unsheltered and homeless people are Californians. They’re our neighbors. They are disproportionately racialized – 26% are Black, 12% are First Nations, and 35% are Latino. They are older: their…Pluralistic: Why are so many Californians homeless? (12 July 2023)