Top US Cities with Highest Homeless Population (2014, to live)

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by BigCity76

I'm well aware and my thought was more in reference to why Tampa over say, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, all larger, more urbanized, warm weather cities/metros. Not to mention the larger cities it's ahead of like Seattle and San Diego.

I'm not saying it for certain in Tampa's instance, however some cities have made it a practice to put homeless individuals on Greyhound buses to other cities as a poor excuse for handling the situation.

[mike0421]

Looking at an alternative source here, but the data is only current as of 2019. Interestingly, on a per capita basis, the city with the most homeless residents per capita (per 100,000) is Eugene, Oregon, by far.

City Mayors: Homelessness in US cities

US cities with most homeless people
City
No of homeless people
New York City (NY)
78,604
Los Angeles, City & County (CA)
56,257
Seattle with King County (WA)
11,199
San Jose & Santa Clara (CA)
9.706
San Diego, City & County (CA)
8,102
San Francisco (CA)
8,035
Oakland & Berkeley (CA)
8,022
Santa Ana & Anaheim (CA)
8,022
Phoenix & Mesa (AZ)
6,614
Washington (DC)
6,521
2019 data

City (State)
Homeless people
per 100,000 residents*
Rise / Fall between
2014-2018
Eugene (OR)
432
-12.4%
Los Angeles (CA)
397
+37.4%
New York City (NY)
394
+16.9%
San Jose (CA)
363
-6.5%
Seattle (WA)
349
+23.0%
Anchorage (AK)
274
+6.6%
Las Vegas (NV)
273
-24.8%
San Francisco (CA)
261
+12.1%
Savannah (GA)
259
-26.9%
San Diego (CA)
257
-2.0%
Reno-Sparks (NV)
254
+45.3%
Vallejo (CA)
253
-16.2%
Amarillo (TX)
250
+44.6%
Tallahassee (FL)
236
+10.0%
Napa (CA)
231
+13.9%
Stockton (CA)
224
+0.3%
Spokane (WA)
217
+1.9%
Fresno (CA)
216
-20.0%
Colorado Springs (CO)
210
+18.2%
Visalia (CA)
208
+23.9%
Denver (CO)
181
-24.6%
Battle Creek (MI)
175
-16.7%
Topeka (KS)
175
-1.4%
St Joseph (MO)
161
+2.6%
Sacramento (CA)
154
+41.0%
Albuquerque (NM)
146
+5.6%
Boston (MA)
138
+0.5%
Springfield (IL)
131
+2.7%
Minneapolis / St Paul (MN)
122
+68.7%
Tulsa (OK)
109
+4.7%
Manchester (NH)
103
+2.8%
Columbus (OH)
86
+6.4%

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by BigCity76

I'm well aware and my thought was more in reference to why Tampa over say, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, all larger, more urbanized, warm weather cities/metros. Not to mention the larger cities it's ahead of like Seattle and San Diego.

For larger metros, Miami, Houston and Dallas are more conservative. Maybe they don't tolerate the homeless. That list, sans Tampa, is basically a listing of the most liberal metros in the states.

[whereiend]

NYC is well known to have a large homeless population but they do an excellent job of sheltering them. The west coast cities on the other hand do not have nearly enough shelter capacity to support the population, and that's why the situation on the streets is much worse.

Of all the idiotic things that progressive cities do regarding the homeless eschewing traditional shelter space in the name of "Housing First" (e.g. building much smaller quantities of very expensive permanent housing) might be the most dumb of all. It makes much more sense to house 100% of the population in spartan, but secure shelters than it does to house 20% in one bedroom apartments while the rest live in tent cities on the streets.

[prospectheightsresident]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

They sure do.

In Hawaii, some 600 homeless individuals have been given one-way plane tickets back to the mainland since 2015: https://www.civilbeat.org/2022/11/ho...-the-mainland/

[prospectheightsresident]

Originally Posted by 1greatcity

I think the article is ridiculous. Cities well-known for homelessness (Las Vegas, Miami, Portland, etc) aren’t even among the top 11?
Using the homeless numbers given and comparing those to each city’s total population, here are the calculated homeless percentages for each city:
1. New York, less than 2% of 8,622,357
2. Chicago, 2.5% of 2,670,406
3. Washington, 8.5% of 670,050
4. Los Angeles, 1% of 4,085,014
5. San Francisco, 5.3% of 715,717
6. Tampa, 4% of 393,264
7. Seattle, 1.5% of 725,487
8. San Jose, less than 1% of 1,036,242
9. Oakland, 2.1% of 422,994
10. San Diego, less than 1% of 1,469,490
11. Denver, less than 1% of 699,288
What looks terribly out of place here? All percentages are under 5.5%. Oh, wait. Washington is a whopping 8.5%?? Must be the most dreadfully poor city with no job opportunities!
What else? The biggest city in the nation— and one that’s among the very most expensive cities in which to live— has less than 2% of its residents homeless? Sounds perposterous.

I agree. A per capita accounting of the homeless population would have painted a better picture and touched on the impact of homelessness in these cities more accurately.

[ckhthankgod]

This thread makes me think about this Guardian article from 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-country-study

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by 1greatcity

I think the article is ridiculous. Cities well-known for homelessness (Las Vegas, Miami, Portland, etc) aren’t even among the top 11?
Using the homeless numbers given and comparing those to each city’s total population, here are the calculated homeless percentages for each city:
1. New York, less than 2% of 8,622,357
2. Chicago, 2.5% of 2,670,406
3. Washington, 8.5% of 670,050
4. Los Angeles, 1% of 4,085,014
5. San Francisco, 5.3% of 715,717
6. Tampa, 4% of 393,264
7. Seattle, 1.5% of 725,487
8. San Jose, less than 1% of 1,036,242
9. Oakland, 2.1% of 422,994
10. San Diego, less than 1% of 1,469,490
11. Denver, less than 1% of 699,288
What looks terribly out of place here? All percentages are under 5.5%. Oh, wait. Washington is a whopping 8.5%?? Must be the most dreadfully poor city with no job opportunities!
What else? The biggest city in the nation— and one that’s among the very most expensive cities in which to live— has less than 2% of its residents homeless? Sounds perposterous.

These numbers would likely get added to all of these cities increasing their populations if they were accurate (doubtful), and not taken away from the total population as a percentage.

[boreatwork]

Originally Posted by cpomp

Interesting how high Washington D.C. and Chicago are, but Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia aren't listed.

Yea DC def has alot of homeless ppl on the street in tent cities and for the most mind their business as they carry on. Theres definitely more in the gentrified areas.

[908Boi]

How do they define homeless? I have serious doubts on the numbers presented here for a number of these cities.