Poll: Most Americans now see homeless people in their area every week

More than half of Americans say they see homeless people in the area where they live at least once a week, and more than half say they support building more affordable housing in their area.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency this week to deal with a worsening homelessness crisis, while President Biden announced his plan to slash America's unhoused.

Biden's plan offers a road map for getting people into housing but also ensuring that they have access to the support, services and income that allows them to thrive. The plan aims to improve equity and strengthen collaboration at all levels.

There is a possibility of confronting the problem without the usual level of partisan rancor, according to a new survey.

Half of Americans who live in suburbs see homeless people less often than those who live in the city, according to a survey. Even among those who live in smaller towns, exposure is still high.

One-third of US adults say they see homeless people in their area on a daily basis.

Half of Americans say they see more homeless people in their area than in the past, while 9% say they don't. One in five people report that their local level of homelessness is the same, and the rest are unsure.

The problem has been worsened by both short-term developments and longer-term structural issues.

More Republicans than Democrats say the number of unhoused people in their area is higher now than in the past.

More than half of Americans think that their state and local governments are not doing a good job at reducing homelessness, with just 23% rating it good or excellent. A majority of both Democrats and Republicans give their state and local governments a negative mark for homeless people. The most common rating is not good.

How can I move forward? Democrats and Republicans don't see the same causes of homelessness Substance abuse and lack of affordable housing rank highest among Republicans when asked to look at a list of reasons and pick all of them. More than two-thirds of Republicans choose personal choices as a reason why people are homeless, compared to less than one-third of Democrats. Left and right tend to see the issue in different ways.

More than half of Americans think mental illness, lack of affordable housing, substance abuse, and economic challenges are the causes of homelessness.

It's in line with expert opinion. The Atlantic recently put it this way.

The analogy of children playing musical chairs is used by some who study the issue of homelessness. The first child to be chairless has an ankle injury. The kids are too nervous to play well. The next few are small. A child is sitting in the last seat at the end. Disability or lack of physical strength can cause kids to end up without chairs. Chairlessness is an inevitability in this scenario because there aren't enough of them.

The stories of individual vulnerability can be told by examining who specifically becomes homeless. It is almost certain that a certain number of people will become homeless when there is a shortage of affordable housing.

A full 70% of Americans favor policies to reduce America's unhoused population and most favor building more affordable housing even in the areas where they live.

Local residents who demand a better government response to homelessness will be resistant if that response involves building new housing in their communities. The number of respondents who favor building more permanent affordable housing in your area to help reduce homelessness is not different from the number who favor building more permanent affordable housing outside your area. Republicans are less likely than Democrats or independents to support YIMBY housing policies.

More Americans now choose to build more permanent affordable housing as the thing that should be done to reduce homelessness than choose any other option.

A plurality of people think that building more permanent affordable housing is the best way to reduce homelessness. That is double the second most popular response.

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The Yahoo News survey used a nationally representative sample of 1,555 US adults to conduct. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote. The American Community Survey has demographic weights. The baseline party identification is the most recent answer given before March 15, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time. The respondents were selected from the opt-in panel. There is a margin of error.