Someone In This Online Group Asked “What Was Something That Shocked You When You Visited A Foreign Country?” And 35 People Delivered

I worked for a large shelter in so Cal so I've seen the back end of it. America's unhoused numbers look lower than they really are. Teams routinely canvas & inventory areas of the city, then the total gets added to the number of people in the shelters. So many unhoused people are missed. Ppl conceal themselves for safety & to not be hassled by police. If you are not able to be seen, you are not counted. For awhile, the local government was having to deal with ppl sleeping in their cars (who are not counted.) No one wanted them in their area. The city ticketed people and towed their cars (safe places to sleep.) This was a bad move obviously, for many reasons. I think people don't understand how long the waitlists are to get into a shelter or how limited budgets are for social services. Moreover, people with housing insecurity are not counted. So if you are able to couch surf or get a room in a weekly hotel for a little bit, you are not counted. Numbers are now skyrocketing.

I've worked in the US for 6 years now specifically in poverty alleviation and I can tell you from first hand experience that the homeless in the US are NOT accurately counted. Most of the numbers are based on the work of volunteers or NGOs, the government spends almost no money actually tracking the problem, because if they don't track it and count the homeless then they can argue it's not an issue that requires funding.

I can assure you our UK streets aren't lined with homeless people, unlike the USA.

Those are the official numbers, not the actual ones, the way the government counts the homeless here is they do a drive by and count the ones that they can see. there are hundreds of thousands more homeless who have concealed themselves.

The US has no clue how many people live in the country, they could not possibly know how many are homeless.

A key difference is the US has a much higher percentage of unsheltered homeless than many other countries. The total number of homeless people per capita may be higher in another country. Take UK for example. 54.4 to our 17.6 (per 10K population). UK has 8.7% of their homeless not sheltered. The US has 35% unsheltered. So that's 4.7 for UK and 6.16 for the US.

I would say that is flawed data I'm afraid. No disrespect to you but it's very hard to believe. You have 140 million population? Australia has 30 million and the US and Aus. have similar land size. Australias' homeless population is def.a lot less. We have better social services health and payments for people in need. Though..it's getting worse. Australia is one of the most expensive places to buy/rent homes in the world and this current conservative Govt. think we are the new America. Thank goodness our Federal Elections are in May 2022!

How old are those numbers?

The difference is how they determine who is homeless. In Sweden for example the homeless are not living in tents on the streets They are in shelters and supported housings.

The most heartbreaking thing is.. that in the states homelessness - reflects mental health issues. While in most other countries - homelessness is indication of wealth.

Yes but it’s Wikipedia. I’d try a more reliable source and see what you come up with.

Anyone can edit Wikipedia. Just saying...

Huh. That’s not the statistics I’ve found it been presented to. Ever. I’d have to say I have a hard time believing this. Since I know for a fact the numbers from Sweden are incorrect - I live here and have reason to keep an eye on such statistics - I have a hard time taking the others at face value either.

the US has the highest number of billionaires (724) ! the US should have ZERO homeless !!

they probably were in DC. live there, and HOO BOY, they're not kidding. It's a bit like seeing a chickadee. You look for a second, then turn away because it isn't really anything unusual. it's sad, but ever since I was too young to even walk, I've see tents and piles of clothes and shopping carts full of trash everywhere- most especially under bridges. it's honestly impressive how complex some of the little camps these people made were. some of them were genuine little huts made out of trash, tarps, plastic bins, anything. honestly, the innovation I see on the daily is nothing to scoff at. still, it's depressing- I see more homeless individuals, and CERTAINLY more litter-scattered little tents than I see people walking their dogs some days.

They also have a lot of people who are not counted because they are “ foreign aliens.. “

Did you check this page too? > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States < This page is the source for those dates... and on top of it it says: This article contains several issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The neutrality of this article is disputed. (November 2021) Some of the sources listed in this article may not be reliable. (November 2021) Always double check your sources... especially if they are so doubtful.

Having lived in both the bay area in california, and in stockholm sweden. There is a shocking difference. Sure there are homeless in stockholm, actually more foreign beggars, but anyway. In stockholm you might see 1-3 during a day depending on where you are in the city. In the bay area, you would see 1-3 homeless camps during the same duration.

Your source is a wiki link that can be modified by ANYONE \

You can’t compare 360 mil population of USA with just one other country. UK for instance has around 54 mil. I am not arguing anything the others said about not counting right.

It might be low on the list because it has a high population than the others. For example 30% of 10 is high than 30% of 100 if you get what I'm saying but US has many homeless people.

May I say the US has a population close to 15x larger than australia?

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Lived in Germany for 5 years...saw not one homeless person.

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This is truth. I've also been to 50+ countries (born, raised and live in the US) and have never seen a homeless person stateside, yet they're everywhere in big European cities particularly :(

I agree with your suggestion for school. Like, the amount of adults who don't know how to do taxes surprises me(I'm 45, and I'm talking from 18-old). We need to include basic financial things and others like you said!

Spoken like a true jackass. I can explain the many, complex reasons for homelessness, but I can't make you understand it. It takes a certain amount of compassion to understand that sometimes people's lives can take a turn for the worse. And clearly, compassion is something you are lacking. Furthermore, you were going on and on in a previous post about Jesus and god, as though you have some inside track to salvation. From what I understand, Jesus preached compassion. And there's also that bit about "not judging".

You can't be serious