Fact Check

Based on currently available numbers, there are about 31 vacant housing units for every homeless person in the U.S.

  • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
    71·
    4 months ago

    Important note here: the US homeless count is woefully inadequate to actually get a realistic number. They use the PIT count, which is a

    count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons carried out on one night in the last 10 calendar days of January or at such other time as required by HUD.

    So if you’re unsheltered and not spotted, or manage to sleep with a friend because it’s fucking freezing, or your shelter is not official, or maybe you’re homeless from March to Oktober, or any of a hundred other reasons, you’re not getting counted.

    The actual problem is MUCH bigger than the official numbers make it look.

    That doesn’t mean there aren’t still way more empty homes than homeless, just that there are more homeless.