‘City of a Thousand’: Ep. 2 Advocates blame housing crisis, rent hikes for homeless encampment boom

n many California cities, tent cities have seemingly popped up everywhere these days. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the number of tent encampments in San Francisco alone has grown by 70 percent during the pandemic…

Tent encampments are typical sights under freeways and in areas such as skid row – a pocket of downtown Los Angeles known for its vast homeless population – but the pandemic, shutdowns and quarantines caused them to spread across the city. Encampments popped up in parking lots, neighborhood parks and outside schools, not only in Los Angeles but other parts of the state.

In San Francisco alone, tent encampments grew by 70% and became more visible across the city, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The city of Dallas has removed a homeless camp after nearby residents complained it was putting their health and safety in jeopardy.

While some who called the camp home say they have no place to go, neighbors are grateful the city is finally responding. The sprawling homeless encampment was covered by a canopy of trees and located behind houses along Tres Logos Lane in northeast Dallas.

In fact, now that a nationwide eviction moratorium is ending, we are being told that millions more Americans could soon be forced out into the streets…
MILLIONS of renters face eviction as a nationwide ban is set to end in two weeks.
It comes as 5.7million Americans – nearly 14% of all renters nationwide – had fallen behind on their rent in April.
The study by the National Equity Atlas revealed that tenants owed nearly $20 billion in rent, with low-income people among those worst affected.
So as bad as things are now, they could soon get a whole lot worse.
Can you imagine what that would look like?
Sleeping on the streets is extremely dangerous, and vast numbers of homeless people end up dying.  According to USA Today, more than 1,300 homeless people died in Los Angeles County alone in 2020…
The crisis in California has left a trail of death.
Some come from drug overdoses, violence or untreated illnesses that compound over time. Others come from suicide. These people die under freeways, along sidewalks and in alleys, hospitals and vehicles. More than 1,300 died last year in Los Angeles County alone. An additional 1,200 died the year before that.
During the pandemic, the federal government has borrowed and spent trillions and trillions of dollars, and the Federal Reserve has pumped trillions and trillions of dollars into the financial system, and yet the suffering of those at the bottom of the economic food chain has gotten much, much worse.

Homelessness Is Becoming a Crisis of Epic Proportions in the United States