If You Still Don't Believe Me...

You, dear reader, do not HAVE to believe me. Feel free to tell yourself whatever helps you sleep at night.

But if you refuse to believe me on the subject of chronically empty homes, at least read this damning research from Self.inc. (Special thanks to Dr. Theresa Vazquez for posting it on Threads.) Sources include HUD and census data - this isn’t some random hack’s opinion.

Homelessness is a horrible epidemic in California, and it’s only getting worse. According to the guide, California has the third-highest number of vacant properties (after New York and Florida, two states with very high numbers of seasonal residents and thus a lot of homes that are only occupied for part of the year). How many is that? Apparently, 1,100,953 or thereabouts.

Yes, that’s over 1.1 MILLION empty homes in our state alone.

And here’s a chilling quote:

Comparing the datasets reveals that there is an average of 27.4 vacant homes per homeless person in the U.S. in 2022, this has increased from 25.6 in 2010.

Sickening, isn’t it?

There are those who insist that no property owner would let a dwelling sit empty. They don’t want to believe it. But the data says that many of them absolutely do.