CA has 1/2 the population of homeless in the US but only 1/8 of total population. The eastern seaboard has close to half the US population but obviously cannot have nearly the same rate of homeless.
Something is at play, though it need not be anything too complicated. Good weather and significant resources dedicated to making the homeless comfortable make California the obvious destination.
There are possibly network effects within homeless communities that are hard for outsiders to understand as well.
I need to write that I was slightly mistaken, CA houses half of the “unsheltered” in the United States and only a quarter of the “homeless.” The unsheltered are highly visible and make up 70% of the total homeless in CA, the highest rate in the nation.
Something is at play, though it need not be anything too complicated. Good weather and significant resources dedicated to making the homeless comfortable make California the obvious destination.
There are possibly network effects within homeless communities that are hard for outsiders to understand as well.