Millionaire rock stars go in and out of rehab repeatedly and don't end up homeless. There is no direct cause-and-effect relationship between drug abuse and homelessness. We only make that connection after the fact. I know of zero credible sources predicting homelessness based on "He's an addict! So it's inevitable!"

There are lots of problems with the stats we keep on homeless people and such people are by their very nature tough to track. There are political agendas driving how the questions get asked and the data gets framed, all of which contradicts my firsthand experience with homelessness and what I have heard for years from actual homeless people.

In a nutshell:

California has about 12 percent of the US population, 25 percent of the US homeless population and more than 50 percent of the nation's unsheltered homeless. I do not find it credible to claim these people are all "locals" and I firmly believe California is the dumping ground for the nation's homeless problem.