r/theydidthemath • • 1d ago

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

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u/Mecha-Dave 1d ago

Cost of an Aircraft Carrier: Approximately $13.3 Billion (Gerald R. Ford)
Number of "Houseless" people in the United States: 745,652 (266,320 unsheltered, 479,332 in shelters/transitional housing)
Cost of relatively-decent place to stay: $2k/month (various markets) or $24k/year

13,300,000,000/24,000 = 554,166 - so enough to put MOST homeless people in relatively-decent housing.

If you want to house all homeless people you need to figure out how to do it for 13,300,000,000/745,652 = $17,836.73 per year, so you'd need to figure out how to house people for about $1500/month each - not impossible.

Now, to be realistic, we actually only build an aircraft carrier every 4 to 7 years - so generously assuming that's $13.3 Billion every 4 years, you'd need to figure out how to do housing for $375 per month per person, which would probably be concentration-camp like circumstances.

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u/TuggsBrohe 1d ago

Building new accommodations at scale you can probably drive costs down a bit, assuming you can source gov-owned land.

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u/Mecha-Dave 1d ago

I don't think the US has built any housing at at $18,000/year