So Many Homeless, So Many More Coming

While "the housing crisis" is discussed endlessly, it doesn't seem like there is a "solution." People are living in cities under bridges and in tent cities. City leaders get complaints so they pass laws. Police and social workers try to remove them or find housing and some agency to pay the rent. 

It is well known a lot of people living on the streets or in shelters have had medicine to mental problems prescribed but are not well enough mentally to take the meds. A string of bad luck dooms others.

While the number of homeless in cities today is at record levels, demographics tell us much bigger problems lie ahead. This the millions of people approaching retirement who do not have adequate retirement saving. They will receive social security which, if people pay today's market rent is not enough to live on.

I follow on You Tube a series of people who live in their vehicles and post videos talking about their success or lack of it. Many people receive about $2,000 per month. If they pay $1,500 for rent, or even $1,000 they are on the border of not making it. Living in a vehicle and moving around, parking in different places and figuring out cooking and bathroom/shower makes for a survivable life. This, of course, assumes no financial complications like doctors and medicines. 

Many of the people on You Tube who have done this for some years have acquired experience and skills the rest of us know nothing about. Almost universally, they have solar collectors that mostly cannot be seen. These allow for lights and phones in their tiny spaces. Sometimes solar provides power for a tiny refrigerator. Tiny natural gas containers run stoves for cooking. Bathroom facilities are discussed endlessly and are solved in various ways including membership in gyms. By paying no rent memberships are affordable.

Even though cities do not want people living in tents or cars, economics and politics make it an available alternative. There are millions of acres of empty parking places. Police departments are not large enough to chase off all of those living in spaces. Camping in a vehicle in plain site is easier than hiding in urban woods.

Living in an urban tent probably does not have a future. Living in a city permanently in a vehicle may well become the solution that will never be acknowledged or approved but will be an underground solution for many thousands approaching retirement.