- Homelessness is a significant problem in the US, with over 580,000 people experiencing homelessness.
- The pandemic recession is projected to increase chronic homelessness by 49% over the next four years.
- The way homelessness is talked about often focuses on how it affects those with homes, rather than addressing the needs of the homeless.
- There is a demonization of the homeless community, which has led to incidents of violence and mistreatment.
- Ronald Reagan's policies worsened homelessness in the US by cutting programs for the poor and housing subsidies.
- The notion that homelessness is a personal choice and not related to economic policies still influences discussions on the issue.
- Dr. Drew's claim that homelessness is not a housing problem but a mental health and addiction crisis is misleading.
- Many factors contribute to homelessness, including medical debt, job loss, domestic violence, and rising housing costs.
- Lack of affordable housing and limited access to public toilets contribute to the visible signs of homelessness.
- Local policies often aim to punish and hide the homeless rather than provide assistance.

- Many local policies surrounding unhoused people aim to punish them rather than help them
- Hostile architecture, such as spikes and dividers, is used to prevent homeless people from sitting or lying on certain property
- A Florida city played children's music at a park pavilion at night to keep homeless people away
- City ordinances criminalizing behaviors associated with homelessness have increased significantly
- Criminalizing homelessness exposes vulnerable populations to unnecessary interactions with the police, particularly people of color and those with multiple marginalized identities
- Lack of shelter beds and issues with shelters make them an inadequate solution for homelessness
- Shelters are often degrading and have strict rules
- Permanent housing is the most effective solution to homelessness, with the Housing First approach prioritizing providing homes and support services
- Housing First programs have been successful in reducing homelessness among veterans
- The current approach to homelessness is costly, with significant spending on incarceration and emergency medical treatment, while providing permanent supportive housing would be more cost-effective.

- Funding and opposition from local residents are major obstacles in implementing affordable housing programs.
- NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) opposition is prevalent in many communities, such as Claremont, California and North Texas.
- Residents express concerns about the impact on crime, businesses, and the perceived class difference.
- Stereotypes and biases against low-income or homeless individuals are present in both conservative and liberal areas.
- A formerly unhoused mother challenges these biases and emphasizes the need for a collective change in perceptions.
- Homelessness is not a personal failing but a consequence of social program cuts and lack of affordable housing.
- A shift in perceptions is the first step towards addressing homelessness.

- Homelessness is a significant problem in the US, with over 580,000 people experiencing homelessness.
- The pandemic recession is projected to increase chronic homelessness by 49% over the next four years.
- Homelessness is often discussed in terms of its impact on those with homes, rather than addressing the needs of the homeless.
- The demonization of the homeless community has led to violence and mistreatment.
- Ronald Reagan's policies worsened homelessness by cutting programs for the poor and housing subsidies.
- The belief that homelessness is a personal choice rather than a result of economic policies still influences discussions.
- Dr. Drew's claim that homelessness is a mental health and addiction crisis is misleading.
- Factors contributing to homelessness include medical debt, job loss, domestic violence, and rising housing costs.
- Lack of affordable housing and limited access to public toilets contribute to the visible signs of homelessness.
- Local policies often aim to punish and hide the homeless rather than provide assistance.
- Hostile architecture and city ordinances criminalizing homelessness are prevalent.
- Criminalizing homelessness exposes vulnerable populations to unnecessary interactions with the police.
- Shelters are often degrading and inadequate, while permanent housing is the most effective solution.
- Housing First programs have been successful in reducing homelessness among veterans.
- The current approach to homelessness is costly, while permanent supportive housing would be more cost-effective.
- Funding and opposition from local residents are major obstacles in implementing affordable housing programs.
- NIMBY opposition is prevalent in many communities.
- Stereotypes and biases against low-income or homeless individuals exist in both conservative and liberal areas.
- A formerly unhoused mother emphasizes the need for a collective change in perceptions of homelessness.

With homelessness increasing nationwide, John Oliver takes a look at the way we discuss the unhoused, what policy failures are making the problem worse, and how we can help.

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Our main story tonight concerns homelessness.

And I know that we are by no means the first show to cover this subject.

Many have tried, and perhaps none more memorably than the criminally canceled Tyra Banks show.

I wanted to understand what their lives are really like and walk a day in their shoes.

No makeup, no lights, nothing but me and the street.

I stopped at 2 kids in the street playing ball.

I mean, there is so much going on there, but I want to focus on Franklin's face, because that is the face of a kid who's definitely figured out the secret identity of the woman who had a camera crew, looked like Tyra Banks and introduced herself saying, -"Hi, my name is Tyra." -$5,000.

But despite Tyra's best efforts, homelessness is still a huge problem in this country.

For the fourth consecutive year, it increased nationwide, with the most recent count suggesting there are over 580,000 people experiencing homelessness in America.

But the truth is, it is likely way more than that, because that annual count only includes people that surveyors could find on the streets or in shelters on a single night last year, a system that misses countless people.

And not just that, experts project the pandemic recession could cause chronic homelessness to increase 49 percent over the next 4 years.

And with this rise in homelessness, has come a corresponding rise in the rhetoric around it, exemplified by segments like this.

This used to be 1 of the crown jewels of Austin.

A guy's walking around with a machete, threatening people.

Now we, sadly, we joke that we're the Machete Capital of Texas.

I'm not saying that someone walking around with a machete isn't scary, but you are making an outlier seem like the norm there, and you've gone out of your way to make it scarier with visual effects.

And you can make anything frightening that way.

Just Shaquille O'Neal dancing with the Jabberwockies.

And look, I know it is easy to criticize Fox News for being alarmist.

That and airing ads for pills that make your dick go bongo.

But the truth is, even some residents of Austin, famously a blue dot in a red state, have said it's been a struggle to reconcile their feelings about their homeless neighbors.

Do you think if you had seen this issue happening in another city and it wasn't happening in your neighborhood, you would feel differently?

Once you're in the middle of it, you change your mind of how you approach the situation.

But as your safety declines, so does your compassion.

Every time I have to pick up human shit, my liberalness just got lowered 1 more notch.

Every time I have to pick up human shit, my liberalism gets lowered is quite the sentence.

Although I'm surprised it was heard in this context and not in a leaked recording from an Amy Klobuchar staff meeting.

And look, again, I am not saying that that is a nice situation to be presented with, but far too often, stories focusing on homelessness are presented solely through the lens of how it affects those with homes.

When in reality, it is obviously the people without them who need the real help.

And the demonization of the homeless community in Austin may well have contributed to incidents like this.

We had so many people throw glass bottles from their cars at our tents.

And said, y'all want trash, y'all need to get a job, y'all need to get housing, Y'all don't need to be out on the streets.

And that is obviously horrible, although I will say, no 1 screaming out of a car window has ever said anything worthwhile.

It's like giving a eulogy through flash mob.

The method of delivery alone is just immediately disqualifying.

The story of homelessness in this country is grounded in a failure of perception compounded by failures of policy.

So tonight, let's look at the way homelessness is talked about, how the problem is currently being made worse and what could actually help.

And like so many things, the modern version of this issue was turbocharged by Ronald Reagan, who came to power at a time when homelessness was increasing and made the problem far worse by cutting programs for the poor and slashing housing subsidies by 75 percent.

Making it pretty galling that Reagan regularly made arguments like this.

1 problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is The people who are sleeping on the grates.

The homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice.

Look, there were lots of things from 1984 that we could have used an undo button for.

At most of Temple of Doom, this extremely unfortunate Jell-O ad.

But Reagan's quarter-arse thoughts on homelessness are near the top of that list.

And that notion that homelessness isn't related to economic policies, but simply reflects the problems of the individuals experiencing it, still informs the way it's discussed today.

Drew of All People talking to Seth Green of All People and pushing back on the notion that the homeless crisis in L.A.

Might have anything to do with a shortage of affordable housing.

Being perpetrated by the government here locally.

Of course we have housing expense issues, but we just absorbed a million illegal undocumented immigrants without a home, without a country, without a job, without a penny.

So it's a mental health crisis and addiction crisis.

I certainly don't see why we wouldn't innately trust Dr.

Drew confidently mouth-splooging bullshit theories to Dr.

Set aside the nonsense that undocumented immigrants don't experience homelessness, because experts will tell you that they very much do, they're just less likely to avail themselves of services because of the whole undocumented thing.

Instead, Let's address the notion that all of this is down to mental health and addiction, because yes, many who are homeless do struggle with both those things, and those people are often the most visible.

Also, in many cases, those struggles can be the result of being homeless and not the cause of it.

The truth is, there are many reasons someone might find themselves without housing.

Medical debt, job loss, fleeing domestic violence, being kicked out of their homes because their parents don't approve their sexuality, or being recently released from prison, or just the overriding fact that housing costs are rising much faster than wages.

Currently, 70 percent of all extremely low income families are spending more than half their income on rent.

And only 37 affordable and available homes exist for every 100 extremely low income renter households.

And that is a startlingly low number, especially considering just how much this country loves watching TV shows about homes.

Little homes, humungo homes, homes for ghosts, and homes remodeled by weirdo twins who definitely shower together, to name just a few of them.

The point here is, it doesn't take much for people to suddenly find themselves without stable housing, as this woman found out.

2 years ago, Priscilla had a full-time job at a health clinic for the homeless.

Her husband Ryan stayed home to care for their 2 sons.

They lived on a tight budget and then their landlord raised the rent a $150.

That's a lot of money for a lot of people that live paycheck by paycheck, and we live like that.

The family was evicted and in a place they never imagined.

Homeless themselves, living in their car.

I work at a homeless clinic and I'm homeless.

Yeah, that is an awful situation to be in.

You never want to find yourself suddenly saying, how did this happen to me?

With the sole exception of being if you are knee-deep in Stanley Tucci sheets.

So, despite Reagan's confidence, there can be not much choice in the matter after all.

As for those outward signs of homelessness that raise such alarm, They are typically the result of public policy choices that we have made.

Remember that woman complaining about human shit?

That is actually a common thread in coverage of the homeless.

In L.A., you can find multiple stories about human feces near homeless encampments.

But it's worth knowing, there is a reason for that.

Most of the city's hundreds of encampments are nowhere near a public toilet.

Has only 16 mobile toilet stations for its 36,000 homeless people.

To make matters worse, with no funding for round-the-clock security, the city hauls away these toilets at night, leaving the homeless no choice but to go on the streets.

From the amount of public toilet stations available, being less than the amount of Bond movies, to shuffling those very minimal toilets away like they're gonna turn into a pumpkin at midnight.

And while that clip is from just before the pandemic, which prompted city officials to increase toilet stations, there are still currently only 55 accessible 24-7.

So, the next time you complain about human shit in the street, maybe think about what it would be like if someone padlocked your bathroom every night.

You, too, would suddenly be getting really creative, really fast.

And it seems the impulse behind many local policies surrounding unhoused people isn't so much to help them as to punish them for their existence and keep them out of sight.

You're probably familiar with hostile architecture designed to prevent homeless people from sitting and lying on certain property.

It's why you'll sometimes see spikes under bridges like this, or benches with dividers to prevent anyone lying down.

And 1 city went even beyond architecture.

Debate raging over a Florida city playing children's music at a park pavilion at night to keep homeless people away.

People say the music rotates between Baby Shark and this song.

Cheese, cheese It's raining tacos Raining tacos

They pumped the song, Raining Tacos at people, when they were just trying to sleep, which is completely inhumane.

Also, and I know this isn't the key point, that song doesn't deserve it either, because it is a certified banger.

Tacos, All you can eat Lettuce and shells Cheese and meat It's rainin' tacos Yum yum yum yum yumily yum

Stop stop stop stop stop I would love to play you more, but the problem is, this show would then get too fun, and I'd spend the rest of the show dancing in the aisles with you, and Ellen would literally kill me.

yummy, yum ♪ But it is not just spikes and songs.

More and more city ordinances have been put into place, criminalizing behaviors associated with being homeless.

Over the course of 13 years, citywide bans on camping have increased by 92 percent, on sitting or lying by 78 percent, on loitering and panhandling by 103 percent, and on living in vehicles by 213 percent.

So, when you hear fear-mongering about rising crime among the homeless, it's worth asking yourself if those crimes were actually crimes, or just someone sat down.

Take Kenneth Schultz, a 71-year-old homeless man who told reporters, sometimes I just get exhausted and boom, sit down, that's it, you're trespassing.

In the 9 years he's been homeless, he's been charged with trespassing 96 times and has spent 1 of every 3 nights in jail.

It means he's spent 3 of the last 9 years behind bars.

You cannot arrest someone out of homelessness in the same way that you can't sing someone out of bankruptcy.

1 thing doesn't remotely lead to the other, and he just can end up making things worse.

I am warning you, Ellen is sharpening her knives as we speak.

-♪ ♪ -♪ And criminalizing homelessness exposes already vulnerable populations to unnecessary interactions with the police.

Unhoused people of color are more likely to be sighted, searched, and have property taken than white people experiencing homelessness.

And those with multiple marginalized identities like LGBTQ plus people of color are even more vulnerable to these laws.

And if you're thinking, well, hold on, why don't homeless people just go to shelters?

There can be a lot of problems with that.

Some cities simply don't have enough beds for everyone.

In Oakland, for example, in 2019, there were 457 beds available for more than 4,000 unhoused people, meaning they couldn't provide everyone with a bed, even if they Willy Wonka'd the situation.

And if I may, I'd actually like to pause at this point for just a quick tangent.

Regarding this, I don't mind Charlie's grandparents sleeping in 1 bed.

Everyone always asks, but what about when they have to fuck?

Do they fuck separately or all do it together?

To which I say, I don't care and I hope so.

They're not related by blood, they're related by their children's marriage.

It's not their fault they have to share 1 rickety bed.

Grandpa George is going to want to make love to grandma Georgina.

And Grandpa Joe is obviously gonna want to get it in Grandma Josephine.

But at a certain point, if you don't invite the couple sleeping in the same bed to join in, it is just rude.

So the next time you talk shit about Charlie Bucket's elder sexual proclivities, Ask yourself this, are they the problem, or were you just raised in a puritanical society that shames any sexual deviation with a quote, unquote, norm?

The point is, some cities don't have enough shelter beds, and even in those that have many, like here in New York, they are not always an option for everyone.

Some might not want to split up their family, or part with their pets, or are simply wary of bringing their only possessions around a room full of strangers.

But also, the key problem with saying, why don't people just go to shelters, is that shelters are only a stopgap solution, because you don't live in a shelter, you just sleep in 1, as this woman points out.

And this is why I understand when I see a lot of homeless people, why they're on the streets.

I went from a full-time job to a part-time job being in the shelter.

You wake up at 05:00, you have to be out of there at 07:00, regardless.

So if pulling yourself up by your bootstraps involves working nights, I'm sorry, you're shit out of luck.

And if you're thinking, no, John, surely a shelter eventually helps people get back on their feet.

Everything worthwhile in life takes time.

Well, think again, because just look what happened when the person who filmed that woman caught up with her almost 8 years later.

You talked about going in and out of the shelter system.

They place you, they let you go, they move you, they let you go.

They get your money from the government, they let you go, and you're still misplaced.

Yeah, the shelter system has done nothing to change her circumstance, and I will be the first to admit here, it's impossible for me to understand just how hard that cycle is.

I've been lucky enough to have always lived in an apartment, or a house, or most recently, an infinite white void run by an abusive landlord.

That was hard in its own way, but it was nothing compared to a potentially life or death game of musical beds.

So, if all we've mentioned so far tonight, poking homeless people with spikes, blasting them with music and locking them up doesn't solve this problem, what does?

Well, this housing advocate has a bold new idea.

It's the only thing that ends homelessness.

It's the solution you've probably been shouting at your TV for the past 15 minutes, or, let's be honest, shouting at your laptop, or if we're being really honest, shouting at your phone during your Monday morning shit.

And if you are annoyed that I wasted your time taking the scenic route here, let me make it up to you with another excellent clip from the Tyra Banks show.

♪ There is some context for that, but the truth is it honestly wouldn't make it make much more sense.

Now, some will say, sure, giving the homeless homes is an obvious solution, but before that, they need to be sober and have a job.

Set aside that dealing with sobriety or your mental health issues is hard enough when you are not living on the streets.

Getting a job is often, if not contingent on, at least aided by having an address.

That is why advocates endorse an approach called Housing First.

It prioritizes helping people get a place to live, but also offers support like mental health and addiction services.

We've actually tried a version of this with homeless veterans before, and it had some real success.

The first step of this new model is a permanent house, funded mostly at government expense, with services then added around the resident.

It's called permanent supportive housing, And that's what Lendl C.

Lives in this complex that houses only formerly homeless veterans.

While there is no firm program that he has to follow, he has access to support services, including on-site case managers, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, and even a community garden.

Sometimes I walk around apartment, no TV or nothing on, and just singing for no reason at all.

And then I catch myself doing it, and I start to laugh.

It's like 2 babies hugging, or 4 grandparents absolutely railing each other.

It's something that just fills you with hope.

And thanks to this Housing First strategy, The number of homeless veterans dropped from 74,000 in 2010 to 38,000 in 2018, a near 50% reduction.

And supportive housing is just 1 version of what this can look like.

For those recently made homeless, Rapid rehousing provides short-term rental assistance and services to help people get back on their feet quickly.

And look, housing first programs clearly require significant resources and funding, but it is not like our current approach is cheap.

1 study in Florida that tracked a decade's worth of spending on just 107 chronically homeless people found that just between money spent on incarceration and emergency medical treatment, their communities and local governments have spent an average of just over $31,000 per person per year, when the estimated cost of providing with permanent supportive housing would have only been around $10,000 per year.

So, if your argument against housing for the homeless was purely monetary, congratulations, your concerns have been answered.

Also, a pre-congratulation for being visited by 3 ghosts this upcoming Christmas Eve.

A huge obstacle in implementing these sorts of programs is opposition from local residents.

It is the NIMBY problem, not in my backyard.

Take Claremont, California, where new developments offering affordable housing, including those geared to the homeless, were proposed, only to encounter fierce community pushback like this.

You don't need to put it in our backyard.

Well it's just gonna go downhill if you bring all that in all their riff-raff.

I agree that they need to find a location but Claremont's not the location to be had.

If they're low income, are they gonna be spending money at the sushi place?

I didn't realize a prerequisite for housing was a willingness to spend Friday nights deep-throating nigiri.

As for that guy saying, I agree they need to find a location, just not here.

Because you do get just because someone leaves your site doesn't mean they stop existing, right?

It's a concept that we all learned pretty early on after about 8 months of absolutely terrifying games of peek-a-boo.

And Claremont is by no means an isolated example.

In North Texas, local residents mobilized against a proposed affordable housing project, which had units set aside for residents using housing choice or Section 8 vouchers.

Basically, rental subsidies for low-income or homeless individuals.

And here is how 1 opponent of the project explained herself.

The lifestyle I feel like that is, goes with Section 8 is usually working, single, maybe single moms, or, people who are struggling to keep their heads above water and it's not, I feel so bad saying that, but it's not, it's just not people who are, I guess, of the same class as us, which sounds bad, but I don't mean that in a bad way.

Do you think that you maybe are stereotyping the folks?

I'm definitely not a racist, and I'm not bigot, but I think I hold a little bit of a stigma against people who are different.

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Homelessness: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)