CRISIS An Enormous Chunk of the U.S. Population Is on the Streets, Living in Poverty, or Among the Working Poor

[Cardinal]

An Enormous Chunk of the U.S. Population Is on the Streets, Living in Poverty, or Among the Working Poor

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—As the U.S. economy slows down, those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being

discernmoney.com

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—As the U.S. economy slows down, those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest. Homelessness is surging, the number of Americans living in poverty is rising, and more Americans are considered to be among “the working poor” than ever before.

Unfortunately, we are witnessing a historic economic shift right now, and economic conditions are only going to get even more harsh during the months ahead. Needless to say, that is really bad news for all of us.

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According to a report from Harvard University, approximately 650,000 Americans were homeless at some point last year. That represented an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2015…

A January 25 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies estimated that over 650,000 Americans experienced homelessness in 2023—up almost 50% from 2015. Costs of renting and home ownership have skyrocketed while wages largely stagnate. The Harvard report found that half of U.S. households are “cost-burdened” (meaning that 30-50% of monthly income goes to housing), and 12 million people are “severely cost-burdened.” These Americans stand one accident, health setback, or employment disruption away from eviction.

During the past several years, scores of tent cities have sprouted like mushrooms in and around U.S. cities from coast to coast.

One 32-year-old woman named Brandy that is living in a tent city near Winterhaven, Florida says that she has been living there for five years and literally has nowhere else to go…

Deep in the woods outside of Winterhaven, Florida, are a cluster of tents and tarps. There are 46 people that live in this homeless encampment, including Brandy C., who has been there for five years.
“I just made a mistake and I’ve been stuck here since. I’m trying to fix it and I can’t,” Brandy told Scripps News Tampa.
The 32-year-old said the homeless camp is not the safest environment, but it is somewhere she can lay her head at night. However, it could soon be taken away.
“They tell us, ‘y’all know y’all fixing to have to leave,’” Brandy said. “We’re like, ‘so where do we go?’”

These are the forgotten people that our politicians don’t like to talk about.

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And their ranks are growing with each passing day.

In Denver, officials have spent 274 million dollars to fight their homelessness crisis, but the area has still “added more homeless individuals than any other metro region in the country since 2018″…

Metro Denver’s homeless crisis has worsened and become among the most acute in the nation despite the city of Denver contracting for at least $274 million from 2021 through 2024 to keep people off the streets.
The Denver metro region has added more homeless individuals than any other metro region in the country since 2018, according to key metrics collected by the federal government.

Like we are seeing in so many other cities, mass migration has been playing a major role in Denver’s homelessness crisis.

We can’t even come close to taking care of the hundreds of thousands of Americans that are already homeless, and more deeply impoverished people are constantly being allowed to pour over our borders.

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Meanwhile, the number of Americans that are living in poverty and the number of Americans that are considered to be among “the working poor” both continue to increase.

As I discussed last week, more than 11 percent of Americans are officially impoverished, and another 29 percent are “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed”…

Over time, higher costs and sluggish wage growth have left more Americans financially vulnerable, with many known as “ALICEs.”
Nearly 40 million families, or 29% of the population, fall in the category of ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — according to United Way’s United for ALICE program, which first coined the term to refer to households earning above the poverty line but less than what’s needed to get by.
That figure doesn’t include the 37.9 million Americans who live in poverty, comprising 11.5% of the total population, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Do you understand what this means?

More than 40 percent of the U.S. population is either homeless, living in poverty or among the ranks of the “working poor”.

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That is staggering. The middle class is being absolutely eviscerated, and a lot more pain is on the way.

Former Merrill Lynch chief economist David Rosenberg accurately predicted the recession that hit us in 2008, and he is now warning that things are about to get really bad in this country.

In fact, even though the Biden administration is telling us that the economy added “175,000 jobs” last month, he is convinced that the economy is actually bleeding jobs…

The US economy added 175,000 jobs last month, shy of economists’ forecasts for 238,000. In notes to clients Friday, the former Merrill Lynch chief economist explained why he views the numbers as a cause for concern.
He said the data is inconsistent with numbers coming from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and Business Employment Dynamics datasets, both of which stated the economy actually lost jobs in the third quarter.
Given the disparity, Rosenberg said the data is likely ‘overstated – by historical proportions.’

I agree with Rosenberg.

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Large companies all over America have been conducting mass layoffs, and the numbers that we are getting from sources that are not controlled by the Biden administration clearly indicate that the economy is losing jobs.

But I am also convinced that our economic problems will accelerate significantly as we head toward the end of this year.

A “perfect storm” of factors is hurting economic performance all over the world, and I anticipate that global turmoil is only going to become more intense as the months roll along.

So what is the bottom line?


The bottom line is that more Americans will soon be homeless, more Americans will soon be living in poverty, and more Americans will soon be among the ranks of the “working poor”.

Our standard of living is steadily declining, and if you want someone to blame you can blame those that are currently running the show in Washington.

 

[Elza]

All of this is by design. It should come as no surprise.

 

[Dobbin]

Owner has said "We live like the wolf is at the door - well, NOW the wolf is at the door."

Which is approximately true.

But I know Owner in a way regrets his lifestyle. Its not the lifestyle of the generations that preceded him.

Grandfather was a lawyer of some repute - he did well in his life to include vacation trips to Scotland, and a 2nd home/cottage on front tier beach on Cape Cod.

Owner's father did nearly as well as a Vice President of a major New England Utility - to include the cottage for a time but later rental homes in lake & hill country New Hampshire. AND a trip to Scotland.

Owner did well as an engineer, but not nearly as well as either generation before him. Or rather he has consciously "held back" not knowing what the future offers. Now in retirement he says "I don't know how I did all this and work for a living too."

And being independent IS a lot of work. His wife consoles him and says "Your father didn't work nearly so hard - but wasn't nearly as abled either."

But perhaps that is what differentiates him from the "poor?" Poor would live in a hovel, probably don't have the ability to pick up a hammer, and simply wait for the EBT card to come in the mail.

Dobbin

 

[raven]

I guess our streets around here are different - we got no people there.

 

[kyrsyan]

I am in a very small town and nowhere near the services most homeless would need. But this past spring there was an encampment on the edge of town.

The problem is real. People are struggling to find places to live that they can afford. The apartments near me used to be a mix of lower income people. Now they are purely people who are holding full time jobs. And people who don't tend to cause problems.

I am grateful every day for the blessings son and I have with our location. And even more grateful for my current job which keeps us stable.

 

[Cacheman]

Heard on talk radio yesterday hiring in the $six figure range of jobs hasn't been this slow in years, as those white collar folks leave the positions are being kept open or just eliminated. When I drive into town I drive through a large area of McMansions that were built in the past 20 years or less, I have never seen so many for sale signs in that area and all these people make more in a year than I do in a decade. It's getting rough for them too it seems.

 

[Cardinal]

There are several Youtubers who are full time rv or car nomads, making videos about where to park to sleep and how to keep safe.

 

[Luddite]

My grandparents were adults during the depression.

Paternal grandmother was raised by great aunt that was 16 at the start of the Civil War. I know exactly where their spring box was located to keep their milk cool.

The house I live in built turn-of-the-century didn’t have an indoor toilet until 1988. I'm grateful that I had examples of "delayed gratification". Some aspects are "denied gratification".

I have bought one new vehicle for myself in my lifetime. An eleven thousand dollar Chevy Aveo.

Granted some people never get "a chance" nor have good examples.

Poor choices play a big part too.

 

[Kathy in FL]

I worked with the Homeless Coalition. There are several factors here that are obvious, yet not.

What “mistake” did Brandy make? It probably wasn’t a mistake but a life altering choice. And the resulting consequences are what she is going to have to live with. We also don’t know the rest of the story and you can bet there is one.

Another huge factor in the homeless population is when they shut down and emptied most of the residential mental health facilities. When you mental health precludes living independently and holding a full time job, unless you have family able to monitor you and get through your day 24/7/365 you will wind up homeless. And even with that those people often won’t stay because they don’t believe there is anything wrong with them, it is everyone else that is the problem. If so and so would just …

Promiscuity, drugs, etc is another sector of the homeless population that has consequences that put them on the streets.

You have people that have made financial choices that put them on the street but by and large this group can be helped but it isn’t easy for them or the people trying to help them.

In my experience in the rental market, most people have a problem having roommates and following congregate rules. Everyone wants their own place when roommates is one sure way to get. It is why one bedrooms are so popular in the entitlement programs. Two and three bedrooms are for existing families with children. But the one bedrooms get sucked up by many programs. People will get one to two years of assistance and then after their assistance ends they still can’t do it on their own and wind up evicted (another “mistake” that follows them around) or they wind up back on the street because they blew through all of their options.

There is no one single factor that is going to cure homelessness because every story is individual. It is a very narrow sector of the population that had nothing to do with their homelessness.

That is my experience working in the mental health field, with the homeless coalition, and as a landlord. You can’t just throw money at the problem, you have to get to the root of every person’s story to find out what needs to change to give them a hand up, not just a hand out.

 

[Cardinal]

In my experience in the rental market, most people have a problem having roommates and following congregate rules.

Yuppers. It goes like this; you get a roommate, you get their problems too.
And their boyfriend's problems.

 

[WFK]

Are they counting the 6 million that came from the South as "Americans"?
Did they suddenly find "homes"?
How do the illegals numbers figure into this problem?

 

[gjwandkids]

It's also dependent on where you live. The federal poverty line is 41,000ish dollars. If you live in Chicago, that's not going to go nearly as far as it will if you live in a small town or rural area. We live about an hour away from church. Milk is usually a dollar more a gallon in the city than it is in the small town nearer to us. Same for butter, same for eggs. Same for most of the prices at the Walmart in town.

 

[Luddite]

A group just moved in about 3 miles from us. They have one small older pull camper and a couple of tents.
This is the first week I've seen them. I know I've seen 2 different California license plates.

They already have a mailbox up. A rental porta-john too.
The undeveloped acreage (12 to 15 iirc) was WAY overpriced for Appalachia. I suspect coming from California they think it was a good deal.

If they don't bring Commiefornia ideas with them, they'll be welcomed. It may take 20 or 30 years but it will happen.

 

[WalknTrot]

Drugs, crime and mental illness account for a majority. There are plenty of "hand's up' available for people who are substance-clean and who can stay on their meds.

BUT their problems will all be solved if I buy gold!!!

 

[FNFAL1958]

We had a tent city in one of the local towns nearby, it was down in a rainwater runoff gully between a major state route and a large corporate mall, and it had been there for a few years until a couple deaths/overdoses? were reported in it and a couple months ago it was cleared out, and now I have no idea where they went. I had seen it myself and there was well over two dozen tents and makeshift shelters down in that gully, but it was close to areas that beggars could go to get whatever handout they could beg folks for. Now keep in mind there are help wanted signs in my area for just about every kind of job. Some people just don't want to work. The biggest problem is housing too, rent in my area is through the roof in price, and there are just not that many places to choose from. This problem is only going to get worse with an influx of south of the border trespassers coming into the area.

 

[Gardener]

There is a "low income" apartment building in the small town near us that is used by the group that owns it to try to get homeless from the near by larger city off the streets.
One of the men who lives there shows up at our church periodically. We have talked to him, and there are obviously some mental health issues going on. His daily life is full of drama, some caused by the people he allowed to move in with him, some caused by his lack of resources and his inability to hold down a job. He has told us things like, "I think Jesus would like me to have a new car, so I think the church should buy me a car. The church should be helping people like me." (The car he drives is a piece of junk and only runs some of the time.) I honestly don't know that we can help him, his issues are not going to get fixed by a better car, and that is the only kind of help he is looking for.

 

[Meemur]

Ours are encouraged to move on. The LEOs allow bicycle - campers to stay one night on the town square in the summer, but they need leave the next morning. Big difference: these are travelers, not homeless guys, plus they usually spend a little money at our stores and restaurants.

 

[PghPanther]

Being working poor is an expensive way to carve out a living...............and the elites know just how to keep it that way.

 

[Blacknarwhal]

It's also dependent on where you live. The federal poverty line is 41,000ish dollars. If you live in Chicago, that's not going to go nearly as far as it will if you live in a small town or rural area. We live about an hour away from church. Milk is usually a dollar more a gallon in the city than it is in the small town nearer to us. Same for butter, same for eggs. Same for most of the prices at the Walmart in town.

Indeed. Out in the sticks, one guy making $41,000 a year is doing pretty well. A couple more promotions and he can probably start shopping for a lake cottage.

 

[packyderms_wife]

Heard on talk radio yesterday hiring in the $six figure range of jobs hasn't been this slow in years, as those white collar folks leave the positions are being kept open or just eliminated. When I drive into town I drive through a large area of McMansions that were built in the past 20 years or less, I have never seen so many for sale signs in that area and all these people make more in a year than I do in a decade. It's getting rough for them too it seems.

Insurance and property taxes is what's causing a lot of issues for folks. Here in Iowa the average homeless person is in their mid sixties and is typically a woman who has literally been priced out of her home. Many lose their houses to the city/county for unpaid property taxes.

 

[Blinker]

Eisenhower on the Opportunity Cost of Defense Spending , by Scott Horton

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who

harpers.org

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. […] Is there no other way the world may live?
—Dwight David Eisenhower, “The Chance for Peace,” speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Apr. 16, 1953.

 

[packyderms_wife]

There is a "low income" apartment building in the small town near us that is used by the group that owns it to try to get homeless from the near by larger city off the streets.
One of the men who lives there shows up at our church periodically. We have talked to him, and there are obviously some mental health issues going on. His daily life is full of drama, some caused by the people he allowed to move in with him, some caused by his lack of resources and his inability to hold down a job. He has told us things like, "I think Jesus would like me to have a new car, so I think the church should buy me a car. The church should be helping people like me." (The car he drives is a piece of junk and only runs some of the time.) I honestly don't know that we can help him, his issues are not going to get fixed by a better car, and that is the only kind of help he is looking for.

new car? Nope, not unless the Lord moves someone to give him one. Repairing the car so it's more reliable, that's a definite possibility.

 

[Intestinal Fortitude]

and where are the millions of ILLEGAL ALIENS??

 

[packyderms_wife]

Being working poor is an expensive way to carve out a living...............and the elites know just how to keep it that way.

And when one looks into the student loan debacle one can see that while the goal was to send millions of kids to college for a higher education, it was never meant to help them get ahead in life financially!

 

[raven]

Its good for the economy . . . homelessness . . . if it wasn't, the government wouldn't make so much of it.

Vote . . . vote again.

 

[Signwatcher]

There's a homeless group that lives down by the Kalamazoo River. When I lived there a neighbor told me that at least one person died in the encampment and was buried without any civilized process.

Things that make you pause and really think about what's coming.

 

[Publius]

Hay I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

 

[Cardinal]

new car? Nope, not unless the Lord moves someone to give him one. Repairing the car so it's more reliable, that's a definite possibility.

Or remind the guy that Jesus told the rich young man to sell everything and follow Him.

 

[changed]

"That is staggering. The middle class is being absolutely eviscerated, and a lot more pain is on the way."

That's the plan. Cloward and Piven.

 

[Housecarl]

Its good for the economy . . . homelessness . . . if it wasn't, the government wouldn't make so much of it.

Vote . . . vote again.

Key point as exemplified in California the literal billions of dollars spent by government through programs administered by non-profits whose administrative costs are often North of 95%. Those running those operations are not just DNC donors but also blood connected to the political class running either the municipality or the state.

 

[Phelan]

I believe this comic sums up the goals of whoever is running the show.

 

[WildernessGirl]

Yuppers. It goes like this; you get a roommate, you get their problems too.
And their boyfriend's problems.

Yes, and in addition 50% of the security of a roof over your head is dependent upon the roommate making responsible life decisions and paying their bills.

 

[Blacknarwhal]

The "working poor." Isn't that just a kick in the slats? The whole POINT of working is so that you're not poor. Hard work is supposed to be rewarded under capitalism. Where is the REWARD?

 

[WTSR]

They will declare inflation conquered after every dollar that the middle class had is extracted from them.

 

[Johnny Twoguns]

I guess our streets around here are different - we got no people there.

More or less right. There are some homeless here, they keep getting kicked out every year or spring. There are a lot of hungry based on the food bank line ups I saw nearby during covid (not now). Lotta poor here, no doubt. Not any huge on the sidewalk homeless here. I've heard it is obvious in larger cities or towns. I am in a 'large' medium sized place in a small State.

Now for a personal response from the heart:

I talk to people in N. Ontario. Tent cities in the relatively small town/cities up there are swamped with tent sidewalk homeless, fentanyl, the third world invaders, crime, everything you would see in American large DNC run cities; nothing like I would have expected in N. Ontario in the mere 7 years since I was last there.

Edited to add: They have been putting up signs along Georgian Bay and other place begging the "new comers" 'please stop crapping on the public beaches'. Disgusting foreigners of the lowest of the human animals.

No friggin' way! Six or seven fxxking years? From vacation paradise to turd world sh+thouse everywhere?

This is what they've done to US and Canada. If this doesn't rise in you what used to be called righteous anger; if instead you have displaced this message from the Gods and instead focus your anger overseas, to anyone, for anything, instead of what is being done to your own personal group of family and loved ones ................................ I feel sorry for you.

 

[Johnny Twoguns]

Yes, and in addition 50% of the security of a roof over your head is dependent upon the roommate making responsible life decisions and paying their bills.

Yes. I should have taken a roomer 6 years ago. Would have saved a fortune. I've lived with lot of people when younger. A lot of it was fun at the time. Get old and sedate and just not wanting to bother 24/7. Tough choice for sure.

 

[Cardinal]

Yes. I should have taken a roomer 6 years ago. Would have saved a fortune. I've lived with lot of people when younger. A lot of it was fun at the time. Get old and sedate and just not wanting to bother 24/7. Tough choice for sure.

Totally with ya there. It is easier when you are young, but when you get older, there is less patience for BS.
I will work three jobs before going the roommate route.

 

[mrrk1562]

here in colorado ,northern colorado .there are a lot of homeless people .

 

[Firebird]

here in colorado ,northern colorado .there are a lot of homeless people .

Same for Florida, our climate makes it easy for year around bumming

 

[Seeker22]

More or less right. There are some homeless here, they keep getting kicked out every year or spring. There are a lot of hungry based on the food bank line ups I saw nearby during covid (not now). Lotta poor here, no doubt. Not any huge on the sidewalk homeless here. I've heard it is obvious in larger cities or towns. I am in a 'large' medium sized place in a small State.

Now for a personal response from the heart:

I talk to people in N. Ontario. Tent cities in the relatively small town/cities up there are swamped with tent sidewalk homeless, fentanyl, the third world invaders, crime, everything you would see in American large DNC run cities; nothing like I would have expected in N. Ontario in the mere 7 years since I was last there.

No friggin' way! Six or seven fxxking years? From vacation paradise to turd world sh+thouse everywhere?

This is what they've done to US and Canada. If this doesn't rise in you what used to be called righteous anger; if instead you have displaced this message from the Gods and instead focus your anger overseas, to anyone, for anything, instead of what is being done to your own personal group of family and loved ones ................................ I feel sorry for you.

This is not going to be received well here and I really don't give a cr-- care.
When religion becomes a mental problem- it leaks over to other people than just the "believer". Do I believe in a Creator? Of course. However, all the ra-rah cheerleaders on this board rooting for Israel are missing something major. They are not rooting for the USA. And that is a slap in the face to all the ancestors who bothered to get over here. Some of you are Native American. Gaza is the new Wounded Knee.

What about our Homeless problem? What about the real rate of Inflation? What about that wide open border? What about complications from the jab? The Zio-scum are hiding behind "we're gawds people because the voices in our head said so".

Meanwhile, we should cut off all foreign aid, keep our weapons (what little we have left and can still produce) and start using them on the people who engineered all this chaos. Greater Israel is being built on your back, and you are cheering.

And I'm not going to take kindly to being driven down in the dirt driving a donkey cart when I'm used to all the modern conveniences in a nice home and driving some of the nicest vehicles ever designed. Flame away. Just soul sick of the echo chamber.

JT, this was not aimed at you.