08x28 - Homelessness in the United States

[bunniefuu]

LAST WEEK TONIGHT
WITH JOHN OLIVER

Welcome to "Last Week Tonight"!

I'm John Oliver.
Thank you for joining us.

A quick recap of the week,
which has been busy.

The G20 met, Covid sh*ts
for children were approved,

and Facebook, in the midst of damaging
revelations from internal documents,

made a big announcement.

I am proud to announce that starting
today, our company is now Meta.

That is stupid for several reasons.
First: Meta is a terrible name.

It belongs
in the bad-name hall of fame,

alongside Ruth's Chris Steakhouse,
Noom, and "Last Week Tonight".

You can't just change your name
to cover up things you're ashamed of.

Otherwise, years ago,

the Pope would've responded
to the Church's scandals by saying:

"Good news, guys:
we're no longer the Catholic Church."

"Say hello to Halo. I really
think that should fix everything."

"Don't worry, we shipped the old
name off to another parish!"

But we're going
to focus on Congress tonight,

which spent this week
focused on two things:

first, celebrating Halloween,

with Mitt Romney dressing up
as Ted Lasso,

quoting "Friday Night Lights"
for no clear reason,

sharing biscuits with Kyrsten Sinema,
in a move that felt

very "homeroom teachers dress
as the most popular kids in school."

You think you're in on it,
but you're very much not.

But the other major action concerned
Biden's signature spending plan,

which appears to be
taking its final shape.

The president outlining
a 1.75 trillion dollar plan

to provide free universal
pre-K for kids

and extend the child tax credit
for families.

It would also include money
for childcare and eldercare

and expand Medicare to cover hearing,
and it would set aside

more than a half-trillion dollars
to combat climate change.

There is a lot in Build Back Better,
unfortunately, though,

none of it includes changing the name
to something that doesn't sound

like a Gold's Gym promotional offer.

But while
what is currently in there is great,

it is hard not to be infuriated
by just how much has been cut out.

Paid family leave,
free community college,

and lower prescription drug costs
for seniors

have all been dropped
in negotiations.

Some of Biden's cornerstone
promises have now gone,

and basically just like that.
sh*t.

God damn it.

I'm sorry, George.
I did it again. I'm sorry.

You couldn't have caught me
at a worse time, John.

- I'm about to go trick-or-treating.
- That actually sounds really fun!

- Are you heading out with your kids?
- No.

Okay. Where was I?
That's right:

paid family leave looks
to be gone from Build Back Better.

Joe Manchin's explanation for why
he could not support it was weak.

I want to work with everyone, as long
as we can start paying for things.

That's all. I can't put this burden
on my grandchildren.

I've got 10 grandchildren,
and I just can't do it.

What are you talking about?

We can't have paid family leave
because of your grandkids?

You can't just use your offspring
as an excuse for your bad decisions.

You're not Ted Cruz. What?
His daughters were cold!

They wanted a vacation
and they were cold.

And if cost was the issue here,
it does not help

that a proposed way to raise
revenue, a "billionaires tax",

was also scrapped
in the final negotiating push,

following complaints from, among
others, Elon Musk, who Tweeted:

"They run out of other people's
money and then they come for you."

A paraphrase of a famous
Margaret Thatcher quote on socialism

and I hope that his next Thatcherism
includes my personal favorite of hers:

"I am dead
and have gone to hell."

But it wasn't just Elon Musk,

here is Kyrsten Sinema's
scene partner, Mitt Romney,

making his case against the tax.

First of all, it's not a good idea
to tell billionaires:

"Don't come to America,
don't start your business here",

but number two, you're gonna tax
people not when they sell something,

but just when they own it
and the value goes up.

These multibillionaires
are going to look and say:

"I don't want to invest
in the stock market,"

"because as that goes up,
I'm going to get taxed."

"So maybe I will instead invest
in a ranch or in paintings"

"or things that don't build jobs
and create a stronger economy."

Okay, not to sound too much
like Mitt's hero Ted Lasso, but:

Mitt must be made of wood
and yapping on the hour,

because that man
is cuckoo like a clock.

Is he Dora the Explorer
on an acid trip?

Because he just can't stop
licking Boots.

And at the risk
of stating the obvious here,

billionaires already buy ranches
and paintings

and dinosaur bones
they have no use for.

Why? 'Cause they have
too much f*cking money.

There literally aren't enough things
on this planet for them to buy.

That is why
they're all racing to space,

whoever lands on Mars first
gets it.

And it does seem many politicians
would rather prioritize

the hypothetical thr*at to
a billionaire's account above all else.

Because that's basically
how our world works now.

Politicians Tweet about cosplaying
as TV's nicest guy

while opposing programs that could
fundamentally change people's lives.

The scariest trick this Halloween

might be that some people
keep f*cking falling for it.

And now this.

And Now, Once Again,
Our Annual Look

at What Happens When Local News
and Halloween Collide.

Welcome to Living East Tennessee.
I'm Justin Young, with Frank Murphy,

and we had different ideas when
it came to dressing up for Halloween.

- What's up, man?
- How are you? You look lovely.

- You look amazing.
- Thank you.

- Look at this!
- Come right over here.

I'm just going to lean. I think.

We've got a big wrestling tournament,
which is a USA Wrestling event.

I got the chance to speak
with James Jude Courtney,

who plays Michael Myers
in the Halloween franchise.

Swedish Chef, can you tell us
what our topic is today?

I can't handle this.

And this rain activity is going to be
headed up to New York City later on.


I'm done with this.

Halloween's the best time
for tricks, treats, child's play

and clowning around.

Even celebrities
love twisted Pennywise.

Take a look.

Do we have the clip?

Moving on. Our main story
tonight concerns homelessness.

I know that we are by no means
the first show to cover this subject,

many have tried and perhaps
none more memorably

than the criminally canceled
"Tyra Banks Show".

I wanted to understand
what their lives are really like

and walk a day in their shoes,
no makeup, no lights,

nothing but me and the street.

I stopped at two kids in the street
playing ball.

Hi, my name is Tyra.

- Hi, what's your name?
- My name's Franklin.

There is so much going on there,
but I want to focus on Franklin's face.

Because that is the face of a kid
who's definitely figured out

the secret identity of the woman
who had a camera crew,

looked like Tyra Banks
and introduced herself saying:

"Hi, my name is Tyra."

But despite Tyra's best efforts,

homelessness is still
a huge problem in this country.

For the fourth consecutive year,
it increased nationwide,

with the most recent count suggesting

there are over 580 000 people
experiencing homelessness in America.

But the truth is,
it is likely way more than that,

because that annual count only includes
people that surveyors could find

on streets or in shelters
on a single night last year,

a system
that misses countless people.

And not just that,

experts project the pandemic recession
could cause chronic homelessness

to increase 49 percent
over the next four years.

And with this rise in homelessness

has come a corresponding rise
in the rhetoric around it,

exemplified by segments like this.

- We came out, just have some fun.
- It's a great time, everybody's safe.

It's America, it's my home.

This used to be
one of the crown jewels of Austin.

But as you can see,
another tent city.

A guy is walking around here
with a machete, threatening people.

It started
with box cutters as a w*apon.

Now, we joke that
we're the machete capital of Texas.

Okay, hold on.

I'm not saying that someone walking
around with a machete isn't scary.

But you're making
an outlier seem like the norm there,

and you've gone out of your way
to make it scarier with visual effects.

And you can make anything
frightening that way. I'll show you.

Here's a bit of fun, Shaquille O'Neal
dancing with the Jabbawockeez.

God, no, now it's terrifying!
Leave him alone, Jabbawockeez!

Leave Shaq alone!
Run, Shaq, just run!

I know it is easy to criticize Fox News
for being alarmist.

Alarmism is their whole thing,

that and airing ads for pills
that make your d*ck go bongo.

But the truth is,
even some residents of Austin,

famously a blue dot in a red state,
have said it's been a struggle

to reconcile their feelings
about their homeless neighbors.

Do you think if you had seen this
issue happening in another city,

not in your neighborhood,
you would feel differently?

Once you're in the middle of it,

you change your mind
of how you approach this situation.

But as your safety declines,
so does your compassion.

Every time
I have to pick up human sh*t,

my liberalness just got lowered
one more notch.

That is very honest.

"Every time I have to pick up human
sh*t, my liberalism gets lowered"

is quite the sentence.

I'm surprised
it was heard in this context

and not in a leaked recording from
an Amy Klobuchar staff meeting.

I am not saying that that is a nice
situation to be presented with.

But far too often,
stories focusing on homelessness

are presented solely through the lens
of how it affects those with homes,

when in reality it is the people
without them who need the real help.

And the demonization
of the homeless community in Austin

may well have contributed
to incidents like this.

We had so many people
throw glass bottles

from the cars at our tents
and said:

"Y'all white trash.
Y'all need to get a job."

"Y'all need to get housing. Y'all don't
need to be out on the streets."

Or some would yell out: "Go home",
this is technically our home.

Right!
And that is obviously horrible.

No one screaming out of a car window
has ever said anything worthwhile.

It's like giving a eulogy
through flash mob.

The method of delivery alone
is just immediately disqualifying.

The story of homelessness
in this country is grounded

in a failure of perception,
compounded by failures of policy.

So tonight, let's look at the way
homelessness is talked about,

how the problem
is currently being made worse

and what could actually help.

The modern version of this issue
was turbocharged by Ronald Reagan,

who came to power at a time
when homelessness was increasing

and made the problem far worse
by cutting programs for the poor

and slashing housing subsidies
by 75 percent,

making it pretty galling that Reagan
regularly made arguments like this.

One problem that we've had,
even in the best of times,

and that is the people
who are sleeping on the grates.

The homeless who are homeless,
you might say, by choice.

I'm sorry, "homeless by choice"?
There were lots of things from 1984

that we could've used
an undo button for:

Long Duk Dong,
most of "Temple of Doom",

this extremely
unfortunate Jell-O ad,

but Reagan's thoughts on homelessness
are near the top of that list.

And that notion, that homelessness
isn't related to economic policies,

but simply reflects the problems
of the individuals experiencing it,

still informs
the way it's discussed today.

Here is Dr. Drew, of all people,
talking to Seth Green, of all people,

and pushing back on the notion
that the homeless crisis in L.A.

might have anything to do
with a shortage of affordable housing.

- This isn't a housing problem.
- It's not?

That's a hoax, being perpetrated
by the government here locally.

- It seems like...
- We have housing expense issues.

But we just absorbed a million
illegal, undocumented immigrants

without a home, without a country,
without a job, without a penny.

We absorbed them. They found
a place to live. It's a hoax.

So, it's a mental health crisis
and addiction crisis, full on.

Okay, then! I don't see why
we wouldn't innately trust

Dr. Drew confidently mouth-splooging
bullshit theories to Dr. Evil's son.

But a few notes on what he said there:
set aside the nonsense

that undocumented immigrants
don't experience homelessness,

because experts will tell you
that they very much do,

they're just less likely
to avail themselves of services,

because of the whole
undocumented thing.

Instead, let's address the notion

that all of this is down
to mental health and addiction.

Because yes, many who are homeless
do struggle with both those things

and those people
are often the most visible,

but by no means all of them.

Also, in many cases, those struggles
can be the result of being homeless

and not the cause of it.

There are many reasons someone might
find themselves without housing:

medical debt, job loss, fleeing domestic
v*olence, being kicked out

because their parents don't approve
of their sexuality,

being released from prison,
or just the overriding fact

that housing costs are rising
much faster than wages.


extremely low-income families

are spending more than half
their income on rent.

And "only 37 affordable
and available homes exist"

"for every 100 extremely low-income
renter households."

That is a startlingly low number,
especially considering just how much

this country loves watching TV shows
about homes.

Little homes, humongo homes,
homes for ghosts

and homes remodeled by weirdo
twins who definitely shower together,

to name just a few of them.

The point here is,
it doesn't take much

for people to suddenly find themselves
without stable housing,

as this woman found out.

Two years ago,

Priscilla had a full-time job
at a health clinic for the homeless.

Her husband, Ryan, stayed home
to care for their two sons.

The youngest has severe autism.

They lived on a tight budget

and then their landlord
raised the rent 150 dollars.

It's a lot of money for a lot of people
that live paycheck by paycheck,

and we live like that.

The family was evicted
and in a place they never imagined,

homeless themselves,
living in their car.

I work at a homeless clinic
and I'm homeless.

How the heck
does that happen to me?

Yeah, that is an awful situation
to be in.

You never want to find yourself
suddenly saying:

"How did this happen to me?"

With the sole exception... if you are
knee-deep in Stanley Tucci's sheets.

And even then, why question it?
You're swimming in Tooch.

Pop a mint,
this is gonna be a delight!

So, despite Reagan's confidence,

there can be not much choice
in the matter after all.

As for those outward signs
of homelessness that raise such alarm,

they are typically the results

of public policy choices
that we have made.

Remember that woman complaining
about human sh*t?

That is actually a common thread
in coverage of the homeless.

In L.A.,
you can find multiple stories

about human feces
near homeless encampments.

But it's worth knowing
there is a reason for that.

Most of the city's
hundreds of encampments

are nowhere near a public toilet.

In fact, L.A. has only


for its 36 000 homeless people.

To make matters worse, with no
funding for round- the-clock security,

the city hauls away
these toilets at night,

leaving the homeless no choice
but to go on the streets.

What the f*ck, to all of that.

From the amount of public toilet
stations available

being less than the amount
of Bond movies,

to shuffling
those very minimal toilets away

like they're going to turn
into a pumpkin at midnight.

And while that clip
is from just before the pandemic,

which prompted city officials
to increase toilet stations,

there are still currently
only 55 accessible 24/7.

So, the next time you complain
about human sh*t in the street,

maybe think about
what it would be like

if someone padlocked
your bathroom every night.

You, too, would suddenly be
getting really creative, really fast.

The impulse behind many local
policies surrounding unhoused people

isn't so much to help them,
as to punish them for their existence

and keep them out of sight.

You're probably familiar
with "hostile architecture",

designed to prevent homeless people
from sitting on certain property.

It's why you'll sometimes see
spikes under bridges like this,

or benches with dividers to prevent
anyone lying down.

And one city went
even beyond architecture.

A debate raging over a Florida city
playing children's music

at a park pavilion at night
to keep homeless people away.

People say the music rotates
between "Baby Shark" and this song.

Cheese, cheese.
It's raining tacos, raining tacos.

It's true, they pumped
the song "Raining Tacos" at people

when they were just trying to sleep,
which is completely inhumane.

Nobody deserves that. Also,
and I know this isn't the key point,

that song doesn't deserve it,
either.

Because it's a certified banger.
Take a listen.

It's raining tacos,
Out in the street,

Tacos, all you can eat,

Lettuce and shells,
Cheese and meat,

It's raining tacos.

Stop!
I would love to play you more,

but this show would then get too fun,
and I'd spend the rest of the show

dancing in the aisles with you
and Ellen would literally k*ll me.

But it is not just spikes and songs.

More city ordinances
have been put into place

criminalizing behaviors
associated with being homeless.

Over the course of 13 years,
city-wide bans on camping

have increased by 92 percent,
on sitting or lying by 78 percent,

on loitering and panhandling
by 103 percent,

and on living in vehicles
by 213 percent.

When you hear fearmongering about
rising crime among the homeless,

it's worth asking if those crimes
were actually crimes

or just someone sat down.

Take Kenneth Shultz, a 71-year-old
homeless man who told reporters:

"Sometimes I just get exhausted,
and boom, sit down."

"That's it. You're trespassing."

In the nine years he's been homeless,

he's been "charged
with trespassing 96 times"

and has "spent one
of every three nights in jail."

And think about what that means.

It means he's spent three
of the last nine years behind bars.

In what way
is that man being helped?

You cannot arrest someone
out of homelessness

in the same way you can't sing
someone out of bankruptcy.

One thing doesn't remotely lead
to another

and you're just going to end up
making things worse.

Even if you're singing this.

No! Turn it off! I'm warning you,

Ellen is sharpening her knives
as we speak!

She'll do it!
It won't be the first time.

Criminalizing homelessness exposes
already vulnerable populations

to unnecessary interactions
with the police.

"Unhoused people of color
are more likely to be cited, searched"

"and have property taken than white
people" experiencing homelessness.

And those with multiple
marginalized identities,

like "LGBTQ+ people of color, are
even more vulnerable" to these laws.

And if you're thinking: "Why don't
homeless people just go to shelters?"

There can be a lot of problems
with that.

Some cities simply don't have
enough beds for everyone.

In Oakland, for example, in 2019,

there were 457 beds available for more
than 4000 unhoused people.

Meaning they couldn't provide
everyone with a bed

even if they Willy Wonka'ed
the situation.

I'd actually like to pause at this
point for just a quick tangent.

So, put 40 seconds
on the clock, please...

Regarding this: I don't mind Charlie's
grandparents sleeping in one bed.

Everyone always asks: "But what
about when they have to f*ck?"

"Do they f*ck separately
or all do it together?"

To which I say,
I don't care and I hope so!

They're not related by blood,
but by their children's marriage.

It's not their fault they have
to share one rickety bed.

Grandpa George is going to want
to make love to Grandma Georgina,

they've shared a life together.

Grandpa Joe is obviously going to want
to get it in Grandma Josephine,

that's the mother of his children!

But at a certain point,

if you don't invite the couple
sleeping in the same bed to join in,

it is just rude.

So, when you talk sh*t about Bucket's
elder's sexual proclivities,

ask yourself this:
are they the problem?

Or were you just raised
in a puritanical society

that shames any sexual deviation
from the quote-unquote "norm"?

That is my time.

I've said my piece.

Back to the sad stuff.

The point is, some cities
don't have enough shelter beds.

And even in those that have many,
like here in New York,

they're not always
an option for everyone.

Some might not want to split up
their family or part with their pets,

or are simply wary of bringing
their only possessions

around a room full of strangers.

But also,
the key problem with saying:

"Why don't people
just go to shelters",

is that shelters
are only stopgap solutions.

You don't live in a shelter, just sleep
in one, as this woman points out.

It's very rough.
I would rather stay on the streets.

And this is why I understand
when I see a lot of homeless people,

why they're on the streets,
the shelter degrades you.

I work part-time. I went from
a full-time job to a part-time job,

being in the shelter, because
there's just too much going on.

I have to be in
at eight o'clock every night.

If I'm not in at eight o'clock,
I lose that bed.

You wake up at five o'clock, you have
to be out of there at seven o'clock.

An 8:00 P.M. curfew
and a 7:00 A.M. kick out the door.

So if "pulling yourself up by your
bootstraps" involves working nights...

I'm sorry, you're sh*t out of luck.
If you're thinking:

"No, John, surely a shelter eventually
helps people get back on their feet,"

"everything worthwhile in life takes
time, I read that on a pillow once!"

Well, think again,
because look what happened

when the person who filmed that woman
caught up with her eight years later.

You talked about going in
and out of the shelter system

and that's still happening.

And that's still happening.
They place you, they let you go,

they move you, they let you go,
get your money from the government,

they'll let you go
and you're still misplaced.

Yeah. The shelter system has done
nothing to change her circumstance.

I will be the first to admit here,

it's impossible for me to understand
just how hard that cycle is.

I've been lucky enough to have always
lived in an apartment or house

or, most recently, an infinite
white void run by an abusive landlord.

That was hard in its own way,
but it was nothing compared

to a potentially life or death game
of musical beds.

So, if all we've mentioned
so far tonight,

poking homeless people with spikes,
blasting them with music

and locking them up, doesn't solve
this problem, what does?

Well, this housing advocate
has a bold new idea.

The solution is simple.
This is what the solution is.

The only thing that ends homelessness.
It's this right here: house keys.

Exactly. House keys. In other words:
give the homeless homes.

It's the solution you've probably
been shouting that at your TV

for the past 15 minutes, or, let's be
honest, shouting at your laptop,

or, if we're being really honest,
shouting at your phone

during your Monday morning sh*t.

And if you are annoyed that I wasted
your time taking the scenic route here,

let me make it up to you with another
clip from "The Tyra Banks Show."

There is some context for that,
but the truth is,

it honestly wouldn't make it
make much more sense.

Some will say: "Giving the homeless
homes is an obvious solution,"

"but before that, they need
to be sober and have a job."

But it's just not that simple.

Set aside that dealing with sobriety
or your mental health issues

is hard enough when you are
not living on the streets,

getting a job is often,
if not contingent on,

at least aided by having an address.

That is why advocates endorse
an approach called "Housing First".

It prioritizes helping people
get a place to live,

but also offers support like mental
health and addiction services.

We've actually tried a version of this
with homeless veterans before

and it had some real success.

The first step of this new model
is a permanent house,

funded mostly at government expense,
services added around the resident.

It's "permanent supportive housing".

And that's what Lendell Seay
found himself in.

Seay lives in this complex that houses
only formerly homeless veterans.

While there is no firm program
that he has to follow,

he has access to support services,
including on-site case managers,

mental health counseling,
substance abuse treatment

and even a community garden.

It feel good. Sometimes,
I walk around the apartment

and no TV or nothing on and
just singing for no reason at all.

And then I catch myself
doing it and I start to laugh

and I say:
"You must be going crazy now."

But I'm just happy.
It feel good.

That is a very nice thing to see!
It's like two babies hugging

or four grandparents
absolutely railing each other.

It's something
that just fills you with hope.

And thanks
to this Housing First strategy,

the number of homeless veterans
dropped from 74 000 in 2010

to 38 000 in 2018,
a near 50 percent reduction.

Supportive housing is just one
version of what this can look like.

For those recently made homeless,

rapid rehousing provides
short-term rental assistance

and services to help people
get back on their feet quickly.

Housing First programs require
significant resources and funding

but it is not like
our current approach is cheap.

One study in Florida that tracked
a decade's worth of spending

on just 107 chronically
homeless people found that

between money spent on incarceration
and emergency medical treatment,

their communities and local
governments had spent an average

of just over 31 000 dollars
per person per year,

when the estimated cost of providing
with permanent supportive housing

would've only been
around 10 000 dollars per year.

So, if your argument
against housing for the homeless

was purely monetary, congratulations,
your concerns have been answered.

Also, a pre-congratulations

for being visited by three ghosts
this upcoming Christmas Eve.

But funding
is not the only issue here.

A huge obstacle in implementing
these sorts of programs

is opposition from local residents.

It is the NIMBY problem,
"not in my backyard",

and it happens absolutely everywhere.

Take Clairemont, California,

where new developments
offering affordable housing,

including those geared to the homeless,
were proposed,

only to encounter
fierce community pushback like this.

You don't need
to put it in our backyard.

It's not fair.

What they're doing is past crazy.

It's just going to go downhill
if you bring all that riff raff.

It's just not the right place.
I agree that they need help.

They need a location. Clairemont's
not the location to be had.

How is that going to impact crime,
the businesses? Is there low-income?

Are they going to be spending money
at the sushi place or not?

No! Not the sushi place! I didn't
realize a prerequisite for housing

was a willingness to spend
Friday nights deep-throating nigiri.

As for that guy saying:

"I agree they need to find a location,
just not here", where then?

Because you do get, just because
someone leaves your sight

doesn't mean
they stop existing, right?

It's a concept that
we all learn pretty early on,

after about eight months of absolutely
terrifying games of peek-a-boo.

Clairemont is by no means
an isolated example. In North Texas,

local residents mobilized against
a proposed affordable housing project,

which had units for residents using
housing choice or Section 8 vouchers,

basically, rental subsidies for
low-income or homeless individuals.

And here is how one opponent
of the project explained herself.

The lifestyle I feel like that
goes with Section 8

is usually working either single moms

or people who are struggling
to keep their heads above water.

And it's not, I feel so bad
saying that, but it's not,

it's just not people who are,
I guess, of the same class as us,

which sounds bad, but I don't
mean that in a bad way.

Do you think that you maybe
are stereotyping the folks?

I totally am, 100 percent!
It works both ways.

I'm definitely not a r*cist
and I'm not bigot,

but I hold a little bit of a stigma
against people who are different.

Okay, some quick corrections there.
You don't feel that bad saying it.

The things you're saying
are things racists and bigots say.

And saying:
"I'm not a r*cist or a bigot",

but also saying you have "a stigma
against people who are different"

isn't necessarily splitting hairs,
but it's definitely segregating them.

And while that woman lives
in a conservative area of Texas,

plenty of the places
you've seen tonight

and plenty of the places
where these sentiments run deepest,

are deep-blue liberal cities.

The truth is, some of you
watching this right now

may share some of those views.

And if you do, I implore you
to take in every word

of this formerly unhoused mother,
Keanakay Scott,

who wrote a letter
to the NIMBYs in her hometown.

You wear your bias like a badge
of honor when you see my history.

You judge me for having children,
for needing assistance.

You hate me for wanting
the stability you take for granted.

And why? Because you didn't
like looking the other way

when you saw me on the street?

Or is it simply because
I make you uncomfortable

and your discomfort is enough

to disqualify a person
from the American dream?

Exactly. She's absolutely right.

It is not the housed's comfort that
needs to be prioritized right now.

If you're wondering why homelessness
continues to get worse in this country,

one reason is that there are
a lot of people, even liberals,

who believe that homelessness
is a personal failing,

poverty can be avoided, and their
own good fortune makes them,

not only better than the unhoused,
but more worthy of comfort.

It is basically Reagan's attitude
from a Whole Foods crowd.

I do not want to oversimplify
the logistics involved here.

It will take a massive
commitment in infrastructure,

funding and resources.

But the very first step here is
a collective change of perceptions.

Basically, we need to stop being dicks,

and assuming that the unhoused
are a collection

of drug addict criminals
who've chosen this life for themselves,

instead of people suffering
the inevitable consequences

of gutted social programs

and a nationwide divestment
from affordable housing.

I really hope that that is one

of the two key things that sticks
in your head from tonight's show.

The other, of course, being this.

That's our show, thanks for watching!
We'll see you next week, good night!