>> Places like West Virginia have way less homelessness than places with high housing costs like the west coast.
COLD towns without major homeless shelter capabilities always have lower rates of homelessness b/c the cold weather is literally life threatening.
Warm(er) regions, like most of the West Coast that isn't known for blizzards, have higher rates of homelessness b/c there is little risk of death if a homeless person camps out in the woods. Note that a lot of homeless folks in warmer regions didn't become homeless in those warm regions - they often become homeless in northern regions and migrate to warm regions prior to winter.
Comparing homelessness in WV to Cali doesn't seem fair since so much of the folks that become homeless in WV are forced to leave the state to survive.
Chicago, Milkwaukee, Boston all have major visible populations of street-living homeless people. I feel like this is a myth west coasters believe or something. I don't see how you could have spent time in a cold city and think it's true.
Parts of NYC and Philly give SF a run for it's money but the homeless in Chicago, Milwaukee and Boston are neither as ubiquitous nor as troublesome as they are in the big cities on the west coast.
Until recently (not sure about the current status), NYC had a "right to shelter" so that people could have a place to stay for the night. This meant that they still had a lot of homelessness, but it wasn't nearly as visible as, say, San Francisco.
I'm willing to bet that WV police have a less 'tolerant' attitude towards homelessness, even "non-problematic", and very a much a "move along/gtfo of our town" attitude.
Did you not read the part of my comment were I clarified "cities without major homeless shelter capabilities"? New York has major cities that have the infrastructure and resources to shelter homeless populations during major cold events. Plenty of Northern CITIES have those capabilities, but WV doesn't. WV doesn't have a single major city and doesn't have the capabilities to shelter a homeless population during major cold events.
A woman in a homeless camp north of Seattle died and her adult son’s spine was crushed last month when a large tree fell their tent during a windstorm.
The local graffiti says that ACAB includes Batman. I’m the son of a cop and grew up around cops. It’s probably more accurate to say TVMOCAB. The vast majority, probably around 90%, of cops are bastards, but there are a few Boy Scouts mixed in. It’s certainly inline with my interaction with cops over he past ~50 years. How could it be otherwise, in accordance with Sturgeon’s law?
>> COLD towns without major homeless shelter capabilities
"without major homeless shelter capabilities" is a key part of my original claim. Every city you listed is a major city that has the infrastructure and resources to shelter homeless populations during major cold events. Plenty of Northern CITIES have those capabilities. but WV doesn't have any major cities and lacks cities with the capabilities to shelter homeless individuals during major cold events.
COLD towns without major homeless shelter capabilities always have lower rates of homelessness b/c the cold weather is literally life threatening.
Warm(er) regions, like most of the West Coast that isn't known for blizzards, have higher rates of homelessness b/c there is little risk of death if a homeless person camps out in the woods. Note that a lot of homeless folks in warmer regions didn't become homeless in those warm regions - they often become homeless in northern regions and migrate to warm regions prior to winter.
Comparing homelessness in WV to Cali doesn't seem fair since so much of the folks that become homeless in WV are forced to leave the state to survive.