There are more homeless people than vacant homes in America.

So, in very simple terms, why are there any homeless people? Same thing applies here in the UK .. there's no need for anyone to be be homeless .. all down to finance .. international shame.

I live in San Francisco. True story. About two years ago I was taking Lyft to get to my destination. The car was possibly five years old at most. As my ride was quite long, and no other passengers, I had the chance to talk to the driver ( female around thirty years old ) . I had to put something in the trunk, and noticed a sleeping bag ,and backpack. As the ride progressed the conversation got personal. She was homeless . She started her day,everyday , at five AM ,and generally finished around nine PM . I offered to give her a room for the night, she was reluctant, but came about. She arrived at my place around nine thirty . I had fresh towels so she could shower ( she said she would wash up every morning in a Starbucks or gas station ) , I fed her ,gave her a couple of sweaters to keep ,as it was very cold and damp outside . She ate like she hadn’t had a decent meal in a week. She didn’t want to accept anything ,and she was sincere about that . I learned a lot that evening . Too long to get into, but the point being there are many homeless people that are there as a recipient of circumstance. It’s terrible . I tried to give her clothes ,and money to eat, she would accept neither. She did tell me she was not the only driver living in her car ,and she was not some anomaly. I didn’t see her in the morning as she had to rise at 4:30 to start picking up the tech people at 5:00 AM. My daughter is one of those tech people ,about the same age as this woman. What separates them is about $225,000.00 a year . Before you cast the stigma shadow on ALL of the homeless people , do yourselves a favour ,and speak to some of these people ,and get their backstory. What I saw absolutely blew my mind . Life is indeed not fair ... Ps. This woman had a child staying with her mother during this time .

So. Give homeless people homes.

Sad but true. Some people think the owners of the empty homes should let the homeless live in those empty home. Sounds good until you realize that the owners of those homes are in business either renting or selling those homes. Plus running a home (heating, lighting, water, & maintenance) all costs someone one money. If you say the government should pay for it, remember where the government gets it's money as well as it track record on spending the money it gets....... BTW this is not about party politics but rather bureaucracy in action.

It seems like a simple solution, just give those people the homes. Obviously if you think that way than you are simple. These people that own these properties are in business to make money and the last thing they will do is just allow people to live there for free. Capitalism, sad but true.

Sad, but true.

George Soffa, I don't mind your political commentary. In fact, I agree with much of it. But could you show a little maturity? Instead of making up foolish names, just call them Republicans. Perhaps then we'd all pay more attention to what you say.

Unfortunately, a large part of the homeless population could not or would not take care of a house if you gave it to them. A better solution is to rehab closed military bases into group housing centers.

It is a disgrace that a country that has our wealth has un homed people. And it absolutely infuriates me that many of the homeless are veterans. That should never be!

There have to be more than 3 million homeless people if you count the immigrant population as homeless??? yesterday an est. 9400 crossed our southern border in one day...

Thank you Jakob for sharing your story.

The answer has to be a guess!

Homeless due to either not wanting to pay hyper-bill$, or evading life through drug usage, or inability to work due to physical or mental disability? It could be from inappropriate social behavior

Do not know if that is true today.

Better check those vacant homes again!

Lawrence M Peltier, duh!

But still theres more greed than homlessness

Jakob Gerber, thank you for writing your comment! I've had similar experiences and changed my thinking on this subject accordingly!

Keep hiking interest rates and real estate may become affordable soon enough.

Dallas Preuitt Boyer, it's called a trailer court.

Got that wrong. I thought there were more homeless in the USA.

Lorna Lake, the homeless cannot afford these homes and the people who own them have a substantial investment in the properties. You cannot expect people to just give their homes, vacant or not, to a homeless person. Tiny home communities that require a small rent and a job to obtain seems like a good idea to me.