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this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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The big caveat there is that the US is, by design, horrible at counting homeless people. The official number you see the most, 582.000, is based on people going out in the street and counting the number of homeless they actually see that night, and the number of people in shelters. Obviously that's going to miss a LOT of people, so the number is much higher in reality.
That's not to say it's a fucking crime against humanity that there are houses sitting empty for years while people are homeless, of course.
Yeah the counting system is flawed and it would take an extraordinary effort to get a more accurate count but there's still a terrible "fun fact"
In the US there's an estimated [16 million vacant homes.](https://todayshomeowner.com/general/guides/highest-home-vacancy-rates/#:~:text=Roughly%209%25%20of%20homes%20(16,for%20seasonal%20or%20recreational%20use.)
So even if the number is off by a factor of 10, there's still enough vacant homes for every homeless person in the US.
It really is a crime against humanity
And the NIMBYs who fight every attempt at new homeless shelters really only make things worse for everyone