Always on the lookout for an American story to exploit, Britain’s Daily Mail has seized on our country’s exploding homelessness situation declaring it a crisis of epic proportions with California at the epicenter.
Ranked by cities, California cornered the marketplace on homelessness with Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco claiming spots on the top 10 list.
But New York, Seattle, and Phoenix managed to squeeze onto the list and Denver claimed the #10 spot.
Not to be outdone, the entire state of Colorado landed 12th place nationwide with the largest population of homeless folks based on HUDs most recent snapshot survey.
- California 171,521
- New York 74,178
- Florida 25,959
- Washington 25,211
- Texas 24,432
- Oregon 17,959
- Massachusetts 15,507
- Arizona 13,553
- Pennsylvania 12,691
- Georgia 10,698
- Ohio 10,654
- Colorado 10,392
Not to harsh on everyone’s mellow, but we were just curious how states with legal marijuana stacked up against states with high homeless numbers. No pun intended.
Interestingly, the Motley Fool was predicting the top-selling cannabis states in 2020 would be:
- California
- Colorado
- Michigan
- Florida
- Washington
- Nevada
- Oregon
- Arizona
- Massachusetts
- Illinois
Before marijuana was legalized, homelessness was a predicable problem that came in partisan waves beginning with Ronald Reagan.
That’s when the media first humanized the homeless issue and transformed the branding from hobos and bums to entire families that were just down on their luck.
But when Clinton took office, the media ignored the issue up until the Bush years, and then it was a problem again, only to subside when Obama was elected just a few short years before marijuana was legalized.
See where we’re going with this?
We were reminded of the absurd partisan hackery of the issue when the Daily Mail cited a tweet from New Jersey Democrat politician Lisa McCormick, who blamed the current homelessness problem on Ronald Reagan’s economic policies of the 1980s.
‘Home used to be a key part of the America Dream but now it is a nightmare for many of our citizens,’ McCormick posted on social media.
‘Reverse Reaganomics: because it doesn’t work.’
Republicans on the other hand, are pointing to drugs and mental health issues as the major contributor to the problem, while arguing that giving away free housing won’t help people who can’t take care of themselves, the Daily Mail reported.
California State Senator Scott Wilk, who represents an area to the north of LA, this week said the state needed a new policy.
‘$20 billion spent over 5 years. 171,521 people currently experiencing homelessness in the Golden State,’ Wilk tweeted
‘The status quo has failed.’
It has indeed.
And a Democrat is in the White House.