Rv's are the new housing.

I'm not at all religious, but Jesus did make a very true statement. "The poor will always be with you" and homelessness is part of that. In California's case in particular, the state is distilling into three distinct social entities; the very poor, the civil servants like utility workers and government, and the ultra rich. Much of the middle class as we use to know it is gone. Engineers and so forth have fled the state cause of high taxes and cost of living. Teachers can't afford homes and some of them are living in their cars(or RV's). The cost of housing is the top issue that instigates out migration. The state lost 1 million residents or about 2.5% of it's population. Affordable housing is unaffordable due to the cost of land, regulations, permits, and it's the same story here in Oregon. Decades of selfish "No Growth" policies(in Oregon), and restrictive urban growth boundaries, conspire to put people on the street. Add to that the loss of millions of jobs from technology, and the concentration of wealth at the top, it's no surprise at all that we're witnessing a breakdown of society. This was all predicted very accurately by Karl Marx. He said "Capitalism, as a system, consumes itself" We are in the consumptive phase; with essentially the rich devouring the poor,and the elimination of good middle class jobs. As far the government; the redistribution of wealth is one of it's main purposes(taxation), and the rich have gamed that so badly that the progressive nature of the tax system has been destroyed. But that's a rant for another day.