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    [oc] Obdachlosenquote in verschiedenen Ländern


    [oc] Obdachlosenquote in verschiedenen Ländern

    Von latinometrics

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    33 Comments

    1. latinometrics on

      What does it mean to be homeless? Is it crashing on a friend’s couch when times are tough? Living in a car, checking into motels or shelters when you can? Does it only apply when you’re rough sleeping, so to speak, in the streets of a town? With different countries answering these questions differently (and homeless people being generally less documented in national registries), it can be tough to get comparable statistics.

      Nonetheless, there are some clear surprises among the generally developed countries of the OECD.For example, the US estimates nearly 200 homeless people for each 100K of its citizens, with about 40% of these living on the streets or in public spaces. Contrast this with Mexico, which officially reports less than a quarter of this rate, and with over 85% of homeless people living in shelters or other temporary accommodation.

      Costa Rica, meanwhile, doesn’t make these sorts of distinctions but still reports a homelessness rate of roughly 86 people per 100K, far below more developed European countries like France, Germany, or the United Kingdom.

      Has Latin America figured out a better solution for helping its poorest citizens? Or is this just a question of underreporting?

      Tools: Figma, Rawgraphs

      Source: [OECD](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/data/datasets/affordable-housing-database/hc3-1-homeless-population.pdf)

    2. radikalkarrot on

      How on earth can people live on the street or in public places in Iceland?

    3. PEPE_22 on

      I’m my experience around NYC, unhoused almost all appear drug addicted or severely mentally ill. Not sure what can be done. Are there any countries that have a decent solution for that which doesn’t just snatch people off the street and put them in jail or something?

    6. YB9017 on

      I don’t know how it’s done. But I did notice that Mexico really does have a lot less homeless people on the streets compared to the U.S.

    7. AmazingPuddle on

      Ireland, France and UK are sort of amazing in a sense: lot of homeless people but nearly all of them still have places where they can rest.

    8. McKoijion on

      Rates of homelessness in ~~various~~ rich, ex-colonial developed OECD countries.

    9. NomadicContrarian on

      Nice work Finland 🇫🇮

      Signed, a Torontonian fed up with the homeless situation.

    12. HydroGate on

      Rates of Homelessness by country is interesting, because people who are very opinionated and very online often have completely inaccurate views of which countries have the worst homeless problems. Also, conflicting definitions of who counts as homeless means pretty much every study comes up with very different results.

      Check out the [list for yourself](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_homeless_population). According to this list, American homeless rates are lower than Germany, Greece, France, Sweden, Australia, Canada, UK, and New Zealand.

    14. MiceAreTiny on

      The definition of “temporary accomodation” can be very variable. Any kind of rent subsidy can be considered this.

    15. Enzo-Unversed on

      I live in Washington and used to live in Japan as well. Here’s something insane:

      Washington State population:Around 8,000,000
      Washington State homeless population:28,000+ and increasing 

      Japan population:Around 126,000,000
      Japan homeless population:2,800 and decreasing. 

      Despite having nearly 120,000,000 more people, Japan has 10x less homeless people, and most are just normal people. Over here, many are mentally ill and/or drug addicted. I also think Washington State’s government is lying about the real number. I think it’s closer to 50,000+. Japan might be too, but not to the same degree. 

    16. RDMvb6 on

      Not surprising. If I was homeless in Mexico I would just sneak into the United States as well. It’s not hard to do and you can live a better life and access more benefits as an undocumented immigrant than as a homeless person in Mexico. I think the take away is more likely to be that Mexico is exporting their homeless to the US, not that they are somehow better at dealing with it.

    18. Hyperion1144 on

      This is an apples-to-oranges graph.

      Japan hides its homeless populations so well, most foreigners can’t even find them. But, at least in the USA, “unstably housed” counts in most (all?) legimate homelessness surveys.

      Japan is filled with “unstably housed” people. Foreigners generally do a terrible job at acknowledging this, finding these people, and counting them.

      This is therefore an apples-to-oranges graph.

    19. John7026 on

      I wonder where all the homeless people from those south American countries went?

    20. derliebesmuskel on

      I wonder where all the homeless Mexicans could possibly be. It’s such a mind boggling question. I guess we’ll never be able to figure it out.

    21. ShivasRightFoot on

      TIL only 7% of Mexican municipalities have construction regulations:

      >Only 7% of Mexico’s municipalities — 165 out of 2,457 — have construction regulations, according to a high-ranking official at the National Disaster Prevention Center (Cenapred).

      >Speaking at a forum on infrastructure safety yesterday, the federal department’s deputy director of structural vulnerability said 45% of those that do have regulations don’t have complementary technical standards.

      >That, explained ,Joel Aragón, means their regulations are nothing more than administrative formalities that have to be completed in order to obtain approval to build.

      >Aragón said the absence of construction laws in most municipalities represents a huge problem because it allows substandard buildings that are vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes.

      https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/93-of-mexicos-municipalities-have-no-construction-regulations/

    22. Pair-of-balls on

      That’s because they all came to America, much more support for the homeless here than down in Mexico City

    23. Chivako on

      I feel this is completely inaccurate data. In South Africa, I see far more homeless people on the streets than I saw while travelling in Berlin, Paris etc. Either third-world countries don’t take accurate measurements or probably don`t care to measure the homeless as there is no support system for them.

    24. Fancy-Plankton9800 on

      Because Mexicans have no qualms about fitting 20 people in an apartamentado.

    25. notthegoatseguy on

      I just got back from Mexico City. The amount of informal housing, even within the core city, is something that just wouldn’t be allowed in cities within Europe, the US or Canada. If there is a code enforcement…well, it isn’t being enforced.

      So yeah technically people aren’t unsheltered. But if a storm ran through or an electrical fire broke out because the wiring wasn’t done properly, then their home would probably go up in smoke.

    26. RecycledPanOil on

      Irelands figures aren’t just counting people who live on the street as homeless. Irelands figures are for people on social housing waiting lists(they currently are living in unsuitable houses), people living in emergency accommodation provided by the state, people living with others and people living on the streets. However the number of people living on the streets is highly variable and in recent months has been inflated by asylum seekers overwhelming the state asylum/direct provision system.
      But yeah take the Irish figure with a grain of salt as where I grew up had on paper a 25% homeless figure and no one sleeping rough.

    27. fightthefascists on

      Sorry but Mexico does not accurately measure its true homeless rate. The government is inept with record keeping and statistics. Also you have large swaths of the population living in shanty towns. Sure they might not be homeless but they live 10 to a shack.

      America suffers from great record keeping. We accurately measure our worst attributes. Other western countries do so as well. But the 3rd world and developing countries are notoriously bad at gathering and reporting their data accurately.

    28. nick1812216 on

      You gotta be a real tough hombre to live homeless on the streets of Iceland

    29. Saxit on

      Is homelessness defined the same in these countries?

      In Sweden institutionalized living (e.g. prison) is counted if you don’t have a permanent residence outside. I.e. people with longer sentences who used to live in a rental are likely counted as homeless.

      Homelessness is basically divided into 4 different categories here, where the most severe is 1, if you sleep outside, or in public spaces, but also if you have been sent to a shelter (including hotel, hostel, protected housing (e.g. women’s shelter).

      Category 2 is the already mentioned institutionalized one.

      Category 3 is a long time residence given by social services (might come with additional rules etc, they will make visits and so on).

      Category 4 is if you temporarily live with friends and family.

      So homeless in Mexico might not mean the same as homeless in Sweden.

    32. TanteJu5 on

      In Mexico, like in many developing countries, it’s tough to get an accurate count of how many people are homeless. Limited resources and a lack of consistent reporting make it hard to track the real numbers. Because of this, the official figures might seem lower than the reality and don’t fully show how big the issue really is.

      Besides, a lot of people live in informal settlements or homes that aren’t up to standard in developing countries. Even though they’re not officially considered “homeless,” their living conditions are still uncertain. On the other hand, developed countries like the U.S. and Sweden might label similar situations as homelessness, which can make their numbers look higher.

    33. Kayash on

      India I don’t know of any records that track this kind of homelessness metric.

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