The Homeless Population is GROWING Exponentially!

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So, a story that really doesn’t surprise many people, homeless numbers on the rise. This past weekend, I was in New Haven, Connecticut for my Sons Lacrosse Tournament, and out about New Haven, I mean, homelessness everywhere. And I’m walking around with my son, and without a doubt, without a doubt, there was major issues when it comes to the mental acumen.

of these people that were on the streets and it was as plain as day and we see it everywhere. And again, I go to New York City on a regular basis for work and it’s a much different place than it was when I lived there a couple of decades plus ago, without a doubt. But anyway, there was a column today in the Wall Street Journal I wanna talk about. And again, it’s gonna talk about homelessness, but it’s also, it kind of ticks me off at just how it might be incompetent.

these journalists are. I don’t know if it’s the journalists, I don’t know if it’s their editors that are looking into these pieces because they talk about all these things, but there’s no real solutions that are available that are right there to ask about, to present. Anyway, they talk about the number of homeless people counted on streets and shelters around the US and how it has broadly risen over the course of the year.

The increase is underscore what advocates for the homeless say is pressure from high housing costs and the end of temporary pandemic era protection such as eviction moratoriums. Now again, they don’t follow up on this with the homeless advocates. Again, you want to be an advocate for the homeless? Fine. I think that, you know, that’s great. How about, how about coming up with some solutions? Okay. Um, high housing costs. Why do we have high housing costs?

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Why? Regulations. What it costs and various different zoning restrictions in certain areas when it comes to multi-family housing. Plain and simple. We talk about all of the costs. We’ve done this before. All the costs that builders face when putting up these units. And again, it’s a numbers game. Okay?

You’re in the construction business, you’re a developer. You wanna make money. You don’t want to lose. And if government regulations and all sorts of restrictions make it problematic, well, they’re not gonna build those units. Temporary pandemic protections being one of those things. Okay? Eviction moratoriums. Who the flip?

is gonna wanna build a multi-family unit. Knowing that if somebody moves into that unit and decides that they’re not gonna pay their rent, you can’t do a damn thing about it. You can’t throw it out. Why is it so hard for you people on the left, you advocates to get this through your thick head? You wanna be a landlord?

and you’ve got your bills and you gotta pay taxes and you gotta pay the utilities and everything that goes on, you gotta make your payment, your mortgage payment on that building and all of a sudden you’ve got no income because of these ridiculous protections. Protections from whom? They didn’t protect the landlords that risk their hard earned money to put these buildings up for crying out loud. Here we go. Shannon Isom.

We have increased homelessness and increased destabilization. 22% homeless increase in the Columbus, Ohio area. The annual point in time count there. Again, I noticed that too when I was in Columbus. They’re visiting, taking my daughter to Ohio State. Saw it on the streets, plain as day. And again, what they do is they find people. They find people to interview for these columns. And it’s.

To me, it’s ridiculous, it’s disingenuous when they do this. They find somebody here to fit whatever narrative that they’re trying to put. Okay, we’re gonna give one here. In the Phoenix area, this is the Wall Street Journal, in the Phoenix area where a local government association says apartment rents rose 68% between 2017 and 2022. Maricopa County recorded 7% homeless increase. That was in part because shelter beds were added in the area.

and shelters are easier to count than those living on the street. Okay, 68%. Now, first and foremost, okay, all these places have some sort of control in regards to increases when it comes to rent, and that’s a bit cost prohibitive as well. If you can’t give fair market value for something, again, why are you going to build it? Again, this is just common sense free market principles that the left, for whatever reason it may be, they think that they’re mean.

They’re not mean. They’re not mean if you actually think about it. You wanna increase the supply. Are you gonna increase the supply by making it more difficult to build more of these units? No. Here’s an example. I think I find a lady here. 55 years old said she and her longtime boyfriend had received a housing voucher during the pandemic. She’s 55 years old, got a housing voucher.

during the pandemic, we’ll call that what? Three years ago, two years ago, two years ago, she was 53. What were you doing prior? Where were you living prior to getting this voucher during the pandemic? Anyway, she said she became homeless for the first time this spring after they were evicted from their Phoenix area home. We didn’t have the money, there’s no help, and there’s a lot of people in our situation right now.

Some temporary measures such as eviction bans, another pandemic aid were aimed at trying to keep people in their homes during the pandemic. The pandemic is over. There’s over 10 million job openings in the United States. Again, get another homeless advocate. When those went away, the numbers went back up. Okay. They interview this person for this column. And again, all these interviews always leave me wanting. How come you’re not providing in this article?

Okay, what does this lady, they got pictures of her. Looks healthy, doesn’t look disabled, got her makeup on, hoop earrings all set ready to go. What do you do? You’re 55 years old. You’re in a pretty, I mean, Phoenix, pretty affluent area. There are many affluent areas in and around. There are a lot of retirees. What do you do for a living? What do you do? What does your boyfriend, your live-in boyfriend do for a living? That the two of you,

The two of you, and let’s, I’m gonna go out there and mention her boyfriend’s age. The two of you, in your 50s, healthy and able bodied, are unable to afford an apartment. Does anybody actually believe that? Anybody actually get your arms around that? That you’re a 55, two people in their 50s, healthy, able bodied, in an area, what’s, I don’t.

Unemployment in Phoenix. Yeah, I’m gonna say, I’m gonna put it that it’s lower than 4%. I’m just gonna put it, it’s probably lower than 4%, meaning that there’s plenty of jobs out there. You can’t make it work. If you can’t make it work, you can’t make it work in this type of jobs market, two people working together, just get a simple one bedroom. Hey, that’s not even a good one bedroom. How about a studio?

How about a studio? You can’t make that work. Then they’re never going to be able to make it work. Again, I wanna reiterate this and it’s difficult. This is the same type of economic ignorance that people have when they talk about, oh, technology is gonna kill jobs. No, technology, yes, well, yes. Will technology kill jobs? But guess what? On the other side, there’s gonna be more jobs created every single time.

You put more restrictions, more restrictions on landlords, stupid restrictions in regards to what they can charge or contractors and what they can build and you make it too expensive. What you’re going to do is you’re automatically going to decrease the supply. And that’s what we need right now. We need a larger supply. Larger supply, prices come down. It’s not rocket science, it’s basics, Econ 101. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.