Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson pushed back against a claim by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt that if he’s elected, L.A.’s homeless population would move to Seattle to take advantage of that city’s drug laws.
That’s right:
“What is driving homelessness is housing costs,” Wilson said when asked about Pratt’s comment. “There is a very, very clear correlation between housing costs and homelessness, and that does not mean that drugs are not a factor. They absolutely are a factor.”
But the main issue is housing costs, immediately followed by job issues, immediately followed by mental health, immediately followed by societal issues related to race, gender, and creed, immediately followed by the student loan crisis, immediately followed by housing availability in preferred areas, immediately followed by poor financial education, immediately followed by (continue this thread for quite a while and eventually you’ll get to drug issues).
Drug use doesn’t even get to be on the list. It’s a symptom, not a cause.
Anything that is addictive, compulsive, and destructive can exacerbate or be a root cause of homelessness.
You can literally smoke cigarettes until you can’t afford a house anymore.
But you are right, it’s not really a cause, and that is why I put it so far down on the list.
