Matt Mahan

I'm sure there's some of that.

I was thinking people genuinely come here for opportunity and don't necessarily have a plan and don't realize how hard it is and how expensive it is.

So there are a lot of factors.

I mean, most of the research on this indicates that the majority of people who are homeless in California are from California.

Right.

And we have a... The majority meaning like 90% or...

The claim, I don't, I don't know.

I mean, I don't want to represent something that I don't know to be true.

The claim is that in most places I've seen 80% of folks were last living indoors in the county in which they are homeless.

But that, I mean, there's a lot of, you can kind of slice that a lot of different ways.

How long were they living there?

Did they actually grow up there?

I don't know.

California has been a destination for people from all over the country, all over the world for decades because of opportunities.

I don't think that the primary driver here is that people who are already homeless in a place like New York woke up one day and said, I'm going to find a way to get across the country to go to California because it's so much better to be homeless there.

I don't think that is the real issue that we should be talking about.

I think the real issue is we need to fix our housing market and build a lot more housing and build it more affordably.

In the meantime, as we're doing that, we need to provide safe, dignified shelter and or inpatient treatment facilities for folks who are currently on the streets.

And we need to increase incomes by improving education, increasing our employment rate, and making sure that people are actually able to start and grow businesses here.

And we need to be willing to enforce our local laws.