So what does that have to do with home prices?
Supply and Demand.
Newsletter: What you 'know' about homelessness is wrong
"The official counts and companion studies of L.A.’s growing homeless population have consistently shown that most homeless people have lived in Los Angeles for at least 10 years.
"These are our longtime neighbors
who were priced out of their apartments by rents that are rising faster than their incomes, or who were struck by some crisis that rendered them unable to keep a permanent roof over their heads.
"It may have been a job layoff, a divorce, a cataclysmic and costly health breakdown, an addiction. ..."
Hedge funds and other speculators bought up empty houses after the Great Recession to rent out at rates a majority of renters could not afford. As a result we have more vacant rentals than homeless people living on the streets.
Oakland Moms Who Occupied Vacant Property to Highlight Housing Crisis Celebrate Unexpected Victory | Democracy Now!
"In Oakland, California, a months-long struggle between a group of unhoused mothers occupying a vacant home and the real estate firm that owned it ended with an unexpected offer to purchase the property earlier this week.
"The major win in the mothers’ fight against homelessness and real estate speculation comes just a week after Wedgewood Properties forcibly evicted the families — known as Moms 4 Housing — from the home they were living in for more than two months."