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Homelessness is a big problem especially here in America. You might just think "Well it's just people with no houses that's it", what I mean is that it goes way deeper than that to the issue like housing and being priced out because the country's costs of living is sky rocketing like crazy. So you see how there's quote of an ice berg from just one sentence which is worth diving into and break down what it has to do with politics and hopefully see how we can start improving the problem.

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Chico, California. [Photo: Karl Mondon/Digital First Media/The Mercury News/Getty Images]

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We see here is a homeless encampment outside of a Walmart in Chico, California. This is really a heavy photo because this encampment is really dangerous to both people and the environment. It really makes it unsafe for customers who are innocently just trying to shop at Walmart. What makes it dangerous to the environment mostly the community is that it can potentially cause diseases to spread in the community because of how much deadly waste the homeless people leave out into the open and also can potentially put businesses out of business because of that. This just shows us of how much lack there is in government support in the homeless issue because if they're just letting these encampments in front a place like Walmart then that says a lot.

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Image showing how many homeless are in California from "Demographics and Statistics of the Homelessness Crisis in America" by Father Joe's Villages 

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From the same article they show of how much people are homeless in California which is we were live. It is said that California is the state with the most homeless people because of how expensive it is to live in California like with inflations with groceries and even gas too. There are over 160k homeless people roaming around California and 113,660 of them are not receiving no help at all and 12,172 of them are young kids which makes it worse. What this is trying to convey isn the issue again with lack of government involvement with the homeless issue.

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This article focuses on the issue of climate change which is also another political issue and how it correlates to homeless. It talks about how climate change is affecting the homeless by saying "Major weather events also hit homeless populations the hardest — both due to a lack of adequate shelter and already compromised physical and mental health. The result is illness, injury, and death with the greatest impacts felt by those most marginalized — including girls, women, and Indigenous populations (Kidd, 2021)", So this also reveals how there is no help to the homeless when they are out there struggling on burning sidewalks or very intense thunderstorms.

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As any one of us who has seen a person without housing suffering on sweltering summer sidewalks can see, climate change has profound implications for homeless populations worldwide. Extreme temperatures, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events destroy homes and livelihoods, creating homelessness and climate-driven migration.

Major weather events also hit homeless populations the hardest - both due to a lack of adequate shelter and already compromised physical and mental health. The result is illness, injury, and death with the greatest impacts felt by those most marginalized - including girls, women, and Indigenous populations.

People experiencing homelessness and inadequate housing in Toronto are bearing the brunt of these impacts locally, as our summers become more sweltering. They join populations suffering worldwide, be it people fleeing from fires in Australia, surviving floods in Kenya, or with culture and livelihoods threatened in the Arctic.

Our responses to date have been reactive, Band-Aid approaches. In Toronto we have relied upon emergency warming and cooling centres. Many organizations also engage in outreach activities, providing water and other supplies. Weather disaster response plans and efforts to build climate resilience in cities seldom address impoverished populations.

In Toronto we see minimal public access to water, a problem that the pandemic has compounded. The cooler, green spaces of our city that offset the asphalt and concrete "heat island" effect have become even less accessible to local homeless populations through aggressive encampment responses.

Several approaches that are much more promising need to be considered as our governments and communities are forced to come to terms with climate change. Two words capture what is needed: planning and prevention.

First, we need to build upon some of the initial, promising efforts to end chronic homelessness. Not having people subsisting in street environments obviates the need for emergency responses to their exposure to weather extremes. Access to affordable housing and supportive housing models are proven means through which this can be achieved.

Preventing homelessness for those at risk of losing housing is also critical - for once the "vicious cycle" that attends the loss of housing commences, effective responses become increasingly complex and expensive.

Building climate resilience and response plans that incorporate homeless populations, in collaboration with people with lived experience, can help ensure that these measures are effective for all. Better predictive data is also essential so we can move from chasing crises to preventing them.

As the weather worsens, these problems will compound. It would be a mistake to think that here in Toronto we are immune to the climate-driven migration and large-scale displacement that are expanding in low and middle-income countries. Some hard realities are coming, and how we prepare for the most marginalized amongst us will be directly related to how well we as a society are prepared.

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Opinion | Climate change is exacerbating the homelessness crisis and we are not ready

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As any one of us who has seen a person without housing suffering on sweltering summer sidewalks can see, climate change has profound implications for homeless populations worldwide. Extreme temperatures, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events destroy homes and livelihoods, creating homelessness and climate-driven migration.

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Public Opinion on the Homelessness Issue (YouGov America, 2022) 1/2

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Public Opinion on the Homelessness Issue (YouGov America, 2022) 1/2

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In A YouGov article, it talks about what Americans think about the homeless problems. We also get to hear it from sides of both democrats and republicans. Democrats blame billionaires, real estate developers, landlords and the military for the homeless issue while Republicans blame just democrats and the homeless people themselves. Republicans don't seem to accept the real causes to why this problem is happening. The article also reveals what the government should do, they think the government should do many things like spending more on social services and programs for people with disabilities and overall just creating programs for these homeless people. Meanwhile republicans believe that the only ways to do about this issue is to keep them away from society and that's just it like no programs and just keep them off public spaces, they even want to resort to put them in jail too.

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A recent YouGov poll finds that Americans view homelessness as more of a national problem than a local one, though all levels of government - national, state, and local - rank highly on the list of entities Americans blame when it comes to homelessness. The mental health system is the only entity blamed by more Americans among those polled about, which is unsurprising given that the two most cited causes of homelessness (out of a list of 13 options offered) are addiction and mental illness. Solutions that receive the most support (out of 17 options provided) include increasing support for veterans, mental illness, disabilities, and addiction. Among the least supported options to attempt to solve homelessness are banning and criminalizing it.
Homelessness as a national, local, and personal problem
Americans are twice as likely to say homelessness is a very serious problem in the United States (54% say this) as they are to say it's a very serious problem in their local community (27% say this). People who live in cities are more likely to identify homelessness as a local problem than people who live in suburbs, towns, or rural areas are. People residing in the Western U.S. view homelessness as more of a local problem than people in the Northeast, Midwest, and South do.

While people are more likely to say homelessness is a national rather than a local problem, they are just as likely to endorse national and local government intervention. Most Americans believe the federal government (69%), as well as state and local governments (66%), should be doing more to address homelessness. Unlike concern over homelessness, there are no differences in support for government intervention based on the type of area that people reside in.

For many people, experiences with homelessness are not only local, they are also personal. More than half of Americans (53%) say they know someone who has been homeless (even if only for a short period of time), including themselves, a family member, a friend, or an acquaintance.

Almost one in five Americans (19%) say they have personally been homeless at some point in their lives. Among the groups analyzed that report above-average rates of ever being homeless are:

35% of people with an annual family income under $20,000 have ever been homeless

34% of people who report their employment status as "permanently disabled"

32% of people without a high-school degree

32% of people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender

27% of people who have served or are serving in the military

The causes of homelessness
Compared to other causes polled about, Americans are most likely to say that the following are major causes of homelessness in the United States:

Americans are most likely to say the following are not causesof homelessness:

Democrats and Republicans disagree on some potential causes of homelessness. Unlike Democrats - who mostly view homelessness as stemming from society-wide issues, such as poverty and a lack of housing supply - Republicans also attribute homelessness to causes that may be classified as individual weaknesses, such as a lack of financial planning or personal responsibility.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to attribute homelessness to:

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to attribute homelessness to:

Drug and alcohol addiction

A lack of personal responsibility

Poor personal-finance skills

Who to blame for homelessness
Who or what do Americans blame for homelessness? Of 13 causes polled, Americans are most likely to say they blame the following a lot for homelessness:

The groups that Americans are most likely to say they don't blame at all include:

When it comes to assigning blame for homelessness, Democrats and Republicans are most likely to point the finger at members of the other party. In addition, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to place blame on homeless people themselves, while Democrats are more likely to blame billionaires, real estate developers, and landlords.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they blame the following for homelessness:

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they blame the following for homelessness:
Support for government intervention
Nearly three in four Americans view housing as a basic human right, and when asked which comes closer to their view, Americans are three times as likely to believe the government can do a lot about homelessness (63% believe this) than to believe homelessness is beyond the government's control (19%).

Since the 1990s, U.S. government policy on homelessness has shifted to a "housing first" model, which offers people who are homeless permanent housing as quickly as possible, and other supportive services thereafter. This model is in contrast to a prior philosophy of "housing readiness," which focuses on addressing other issues that may have led to homelessness prior to securing housing.

When asked which approach they prefer, about half of Americans take a "housing first" stance on homelessness, while fewer - about one-third - say that people who are homeless should solve other problems first before seeking housing. Though Republicans are less likely than Democrats to support a "housing first" approach, members of both parties are more likely to take this position than the alternative "housing readiness" view.

We also asked Americans their opinions on 17 specific policy proposals aimed at addressing homelessness. Of these, Americans are most likely to support the following:

Among the proposals asked about, Americans are more likely to support than to oppose all but one: arresting the homeless. The proposals with the highest levels of opposition include:

While Democrats and Republicans are equally likely to support some policy proposals - such as funding services for people with mental illness or victims of domestic violence - they disagree on many others. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support measures that make life difficult for homeless people, such as banning homeless camps and building defensive architecture. Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to favor funding social services, offering housing support, and incentivizing the building of new housing.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support the government taking the following actions to address homelessness:

Spending more on social services

Strengthening laws around renters' rights to reduce evictions

Building housing for chronically homeless people to permanently live in

Funding more subsidized housing programs

Funding more emergency rental assistance programs

Incentivizing developers to build more housing

Incentivizing developers to build more low-income housing

Reducing zoning regulations to try to increase the supply of housing

Funding more programs for people with disabilities

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support the government taking the following actions to address homelessness:

While most Americans support a majority of the policies polled, far fewer are confident that these interventions will be effective at reducing homelessness. Perceptions of effectiveness and support align for at least one policy that most people say government should avoid: arresting and jailing people who are homeless. Fewer than 20% support this or believe it is effective.
Societal treatment of people who are homeless
How do Americans feel when they see people living on the streets in their community? When asked to select from a list of adjectives, a majority of people (62%) reported that seeing this would make them feel sad. About half say they'd feel concerned (49%) and sympathetic (47%). Fewer say they'd feel angry (19%), annoyed (11%), and guilty (10%).

How do Americans feel American society treats people who are homeless? Pairing the findings from our most recent poll with one we conducted earlier in the month, we find that more Americans say people who are homeless face discrimination (44% say a great deal; 37% say a fair amount) than say the same about other racial, religious, and sexual and gender minority groups, including transgender Americans (40% a great deal; 30% a fair amount), Black Americans (35% a great deal; 34% a fair amount), and Muslim Americans (32% a great deal; 38% a fair amount).
A gender gap in views on homelessness
On most questions asked, women were more likely than men to take a sympathetic stance towards people experiencing homelessness. This is consistent with prior research showing that women are more concerned about homelessness and have more compassionate views on the subject. Below, we outline a number of opinions on which women and men differ in our survey:

Women (63%) are more likely than men (45%) to say homelessness is a very serious problem in the U.S.

Women (48%) are more likely than men (34%) to say the federal government should be doing much more to address homelessness.

Women (65%) are more likely than men (48%) to say that a lack of affordable housing is a major cause of homelessness.

Women (44%) are more likely than men (21%) to say that domestic violence is a major cause of homelessness.

Women (19%) are less likely than men (29%) to blame homeless people themselves for homelessness.

Women (79%) are more likely than men (65%) to say that housing is a basic human right.

Women (72%) are more likely than men (56%) to support funding emergency rental assistance programs.

Women (13%) are less likely than men (22%) to support arresting and jailing homeless people.

Women (69%) are more likely than men (54%) to say that seeing someone living on the streets makes them feel sad.

Women (54%) are more likely than men (33%) to say that people who are homeless face a great deal of discrimination in society.

This poll was conducted on April 19 - 25, 2022, among 1,000 U.S. adult citizens. Explore more on the methodology and data for this poll. Image: Jonathan Kho Ming Jun on Unsplash

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Who do Americans blame for homelessness? | YouGov

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A recent YouGov poll finds that Americans view homelessness as more of a national problem than a local one, though all levels of government - national, state, and local - rank highly on the list of entities Americans blame when it comes to homelessness.

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Let's break down and focus on what we are seeing here

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Public Opinion on the Homelessness Issue (YouGov America, 2022) 2/2

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Public Opinion on the Homelessness Issue (YouGov America, 2022) 2/2

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In the same article, they also gather public opinions on the issues from both sides of parties on what can be done about the homeless problem. So what we see here is that democrats seem more willing to offer housing to homeless than republicans. In the last two results we see that republicans don't want nothing to do with the homeless in terms of getting involved in their lives lawfully for the better, they want to leave everything up to the charities that advocate for homeless people rather than the government getting involved. Democrats want to provide the homeless population with shelters and many opportunities from the government, as mentioned before housing which is most notable.

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The Politics of Homelessness in the United States | J.Williams 2017

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We see what politics has to do with the homeless issue in the US in this book by Jean Williams. Williams points out how the homeless is no surprise when it comes to the US because the US is the country mega economy, "Homelessness represents both a policy problem and a political quandary in the United States. In the wealthiest economy in the world, the fact that individuals and families lack housing and must live on the streets, in their cars, or in congregate shelters calls into question the basic functioning of the social safety net and suggests that something is deeply wrong with the political and economic priorities of the country" (Williams 2017). So what Williams is saying in this quote is that since our country is so rich then why isn't our government and systems stepping in and trying to fix this problem when we can afford resources to assist us in fixing it.

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Today, I have shown why the homeless problem should be paid more attention. I’ve shown my evidence to why the homeless problem is a very big problem to our society, how it correlates to our political system and to our environment's future. These people are still humans at the end of the day. They weren't born into this world with dreams to become a deadbeat person publicly digging through trash, burning out and eating off the street and carrying disgusting baggage of trash.