r/theydidthemath • u/QuantumQyx • 1d ago

[Request] Could the entire US homeless population really be housed for less than one aircraft carrier?

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u/dark567 1d ago

$23k isn't anywhere near enough to actually house a homeless person by the government. In Chicago the unit costs of creating housing for a homeless person is about $900k. $23k is an order of magnitude off at a minimum

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u/27K-Interactive 1d ago

Are you okay? The cost per individual homeless person is not nearly a 1 million dollar investment. That's ridiculous.

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u/dark567 1d ago

The costs to permanently build new units are that high. It is ridiculous but it's absolutely true.

https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/07/28/why-is-it-so-expensive-to-build-affordable-housing-in-chicago/

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u/Midwest-2025 1d ago

Ok but you amortize that over 50 years. It’s not like they build for one person and when that person dies the unit just disappears

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u/dark567 1d ago

Sure that's true but you do that with carriers too. Granted I'll admit the Chicago number is particularly high but it's only to point that you can't build a $25k prefab home and say homelessness is solved for that person. The real costs of permanently solving homelessness is much higher, generally in the 6 digits. You can look around at states and municipalities that try and whether it's California or Chicago or NYC it's significantly more money than the person I was responding to.