Homelessness Is Booming on the West Coast and I’ll Give You One Guess Why

For the first time since 2010, the number of homeless people in the US increased this year, according to new estimates from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The main driver of this increase? Lack of affordable housing in metropolitan areas, especially those on the West Coast that have become synonymous with the booming tech industry.

As a whole, homelessness has declined 13 percent across the nation since 2010, and most states have followed this trend since last year’s HUD Continuum of Care data was released. HUD says this year’s increase is being largely driven by cities in California, Oregon, and Washington, where soaring rent costs and stagnant wages have left the poor with few options for shelter.

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As the Associated Press reported last month, many without a place to live on the West Coast are “working homeless,” those whose temporary positions do not provide adequate income to match the spiraling housing prices where they live and work, forcing them to sleep in RVs or cars:

The booming economy, fueled by the tech sector, and decades of under-building have led to an historic shortage of affordable housing. It has upended the stereotypical view of people out on the streets as unemployed: They are retail clerks, plumbers, janitors—even teachers—who go to work, sleep where they can and buy gym memberships for a place to shower.

With housing costs rapidly rising, tent cities have cropped up in cities like Portland and Los Angeles (where homelessness spiked over 25 percent since last year), leading to public health crises. California declared a state of emergency earlier this year after multiple cities suffered an outbreak of hepatitis A. San Diego now cleans its sidewalks with bleach to combat another epidemic, the AP reports.

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City governments and non-profits alike are overwhelmed by the tide of long-term homelessness—a figure that grew 12.2 percent since last year. And the wealthy companies that have driven up living costs in these cities have not been quick to offer solutions of their own.

It’s similarly unclear what, if anything, HUD plans to do to address the problems faced by those being forced out of metropolitan areas by stagnant wages, soaring rents, and increasing costs of living. HUD Secretary Ben Carson, who once famously referred to poverty as “a state of mind” said today in an interview with NPR that “we just need to move a little bit away from the concept that only the government can solve this problem by throwing more money at it.”

When city infrastructure is pushed to its limit, that’s precisely what the federal government is supposed to do—reallocate funds to meet a growing need. Unfortunately for the nearly 554,000 homeless people counted by HUD this year, that seems unlikely to happen.

[HUD, Chicago Tribune]

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John Conyers’s Son Was Arrested This Year, Accused of Stabbing His Girlfriend

Mr. Conyers added that he had not spoken to the girlfriend in several months and that the two had agreed to go their separate ways after dating for two and a half years.

“At no point did I initiate contact with any objects,” he said. “All criminal charges were dismissed and a restraining order was entered as a cooling off measure. The authorities did not see any need to proceed further.”

The girlfriend, however, gave a starkly different account of the episode, according to documents obtained by NBC News. She told the police that Mr. Conyers had cut her and “body slammed her on the bed and then on the floor where he pinned her down and spit on her,” the report said.

She said Mr. Conyers suspected her of cheating after he went through her computer. She said that she had tried to call the police, but that Mr. Conyers took her phone and then chased her into the kitchen, where she grabbed a knife and told him to leave. She also said Mr. Conyers took the knife and swung it at her, cutting her arm, according to NBC News.

Mr. Conyers said in the interview on Wednesday that his girlfriend had eventually called the police. However, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, citing a “lack of independent witnesses,” concluded that it “could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim’s injury was not accidentally sustained” while Mr. Conyers was trying to take away the knife, NBC reported.

Mr. Conyers, who describes himself as “a partner at Detroit’s first minority-run hedge fund,” said that he wanted to be honest and transparent about the incident and that he felt remorseful.

“I apologize, and I am regretful for any part I played in escalating the altercation,” he said.

Representative John Conyers Jr. announced Tuesday that he would leave Congress, and he endorsed his son to succeed him. By trying to keep his Detroit-area seat in the family, Mr. Conyers, 88, the longest-serving African-American representative in history, may have touched off a family feud. His great-nephew Ian Conyers, a state senator in Michigan, had already said he plans to run in a special House election.

But John Conyers III said Wednesday that he was not sure he wanted to run because he did not want to deal with “public life,” which often comes with “unnecessary grief.”

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“I didn’t ask my dad to say that I was going to run because I don’t know if I am going to run,” Mr. Conyers said. “I was extremely caught off guard by his endorsement. This is what he wants. Who am I to tell him what he wants?”

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