Living doubled up. American adults are increasingly sharing a home with other adults with whom they are not romantically involved. This arrangement known as doubling up or shared living. Is increasing in the country, doubling up is associated with economic disadvantage, both householders and guests in doubled up households are more likely to have povertylevel personal incomes than nondoubled up adults. There are of course other reasons associated with the social phenomenon, but most agree that Economic Issues top the list. Its pretty clearly a result of Economic Conditions under which. Uh, its very difficult for many people to afford housing, i mean if youre living with uh, you, if youre living with your friends or living with extended family because you want to, thats great, but i think uh, in far too many cases, uh, you know, rent is simply unaffordable, the idea of people buying their own homes is just out of the question, but just how many people do own a home in america, statistics show over 65. 5 of americans own a home as of 2022, some 74 million americans or about 27 live in a condo or properties by home owners of associations, and 58 of Housing Units were of owner occupied. My actual job is im a computer programmer. Okay, i have allergy against uh paying 10 of my paycheck or more for rent. This is where my dirty clothes go and then i have. Of giant bag of film, so do you mind being in a pod . No, i just i sleep here, its like a place where i sleep and an apartment that comes with its own friends. Ive already had my permanent life, i was married, i have kids, uh, the kid is all the way through college, yeah, im here because my job is here, but its too expensive to rent my own place. What would be the price if you wanted an apartment . What would you one bedroom . This area would be 4,000, 5,000. What do you pay for a pod . About 1200. We have a pretty nice common space. Do you have your own . These two, those two, and you get a section in the refrigerator. The bathroom is there. The job i have right now is the most high paying job ive ever had in my life and i cant afford a 500 apartment. Millennials, americas largest generation, are becoming home owners later in life and at lower rates than the generations of americans that preceeded them. Along with carrying expensive student loans, millennials are choosing to rent for longer in locations that tend to be more expensive. The urban institute found nearly half of households headed by people 18 to 34 years old were rent burdened meaning that theyre paying upwards of 30 of their paycheck just to cover. Rent, you know, the the idea of having roommates in modern america is very common, um, primarily most of of my adult life, ive always lived with roommates and its always been a financial reason, um, i think lot of you know, younger people in america are not in a position to afford their own housing or even afford their own apartment, you know, so i think that um, the the trend of People Living together is a one. Economic, i think there are some people of who choose to do that out of loneliness reasons, but definitely feel like its 100 financial and economic. The rise in shared living is likely not simply a response to rising housing costs and weak incomes. A recent article by the Washington Post says that while families with children taking on roommates is fairly rare, it may be part of a broader trend toward more multigenerational living. In other words, some families do this just to create a sense of community in the household. I think that you could say that there are cultural factors at play it so far. As you know many people you know feel lonely and alienated and that might you know have some appeal for them, but honestly i really dont think that that is the main thing going on here, i think that um, i think that that is almost certainly going to be mostly economic um that in other words uh were primarily talking about a phenomenon thats going on among people who um cant just you know uh buy their own homes or you know or just pay whatever rent you know they they please. The increase and doubling up is offsetting other social trends bearing on the nature of the nations households and demand for housing. While americans are less likely to be living with a spouse or unmarried partner in their household, the rise and doubling up means more adults are living with nonrelatives and with relatives. Other than romantic partners. As a result, the average number of adults per household has not declined since 1995, and consequently, the number of households per adult has not increased. In a shared living environment, obviously you want to share a living space with people who you get along with, who you have you, similarities with, who you uh, to get along with, and so having similar cultural traits is probably. But um, you know, i definitely look for roommates who i share common interests with and things like that, so um, yeah, i think that, but but primarily it is driven by uh, financial factors and in order to pay the bills, because yeah, the prices of housing here is pretty, pretty extreme these days, and so yeah, i think most people are forced into a shared living situation, the Washington Post article. Says living with others is much more common in other parts of the world such as western europe where theres a less of a cultural emphasis on privacy. Having privacy seems to be more of an american issue, but how much of this living doubled up is really driven by that factor . Id say here in america, like loneliness is new is a different concept. Think a lot of people in america want to be left alone these days. I think people in america are very comfortable just being on their cell phone. And not being bothered by the outside world, mean thats my impression, and uh, you know, maybe thats not true for every, of course its not true for everybody, but its a broad generalization, i feel like most, even younger people, they love to just be left alone, you know, they dont want to be uh impeeded on by other people, and especially after the covid lockdown era, you know, i think that drove people even further into isolation, and people are very comfortable in their isolation here in the United States, you dont see. Generation families living in the same household, uh, you definitely see a larger emphasis on privacy here, um, so again, i feel like just the uh, the choice to live with other people like in the same house is again, just driven by economics. Many families budgets are squeezed ongoing inflation, having renters provides meaningful source of income for many families, allowing them to work fewer paid hours and devote more time to caregiving, the decision is about more than just savings though, it could enhance family life. The big question that i would ask is if this is something thats happening more now, what changed . Uh, and you know, if there is a Greater Cultural emphasis in the United States than in some other countries on privacy, that could well be true, but uh, then the issue would be, well, why, you know, why would it suddenly change now . Uh, and thats a little bit harder to understand, whereas uh, just you know, the rent going up and people having more trouble paying it is all too easy to understand. Almost 600,000 people are homeless in america, thats a Staggering Number for the worlds leading economy, according to the national lowing housing coalition, 7 million extremely low income renters cannot get Affordable Housing, this is not because of lack of funding, is it, because the us spends well over 700 billion dollars on defense, not to mention the ukraine aid. When you see People Living on the street, you could say, theyre alcoholic, theyre drug addics, theyre schizophrenic, theres all the long list of reasons why theyre living on the street, but how do they stop living on the street . Right, and how many of them started out being hardworking, decent normal people who are trying to pay all their bills a a minimum wage salary when the price of the real estate just kept going up exponentially. I a very, very staunch uh, i have fearless, or not fearless. Fierce opponent of spending 700 billion dollars on the military just to go around the world and murder people like that, like you have no idea, that angers me, you know, all of this money being sent to ukraine, that angers me as an american, like its its its its its infuriating, you know, it very much is infuriating that america has to have their hands all over the world creating conflict, and what were seeing with ukraine is its a Money Laundering operation, its just. Horrific and i wish that that changes someday, you know, my government, my United States and this is what i want to tell, United States government does not represent me as an american. Im a proud american, i love america, i love america institutions, but this government that is here in the United States is evil and wrong, and i hope that someday something changes. Statistics on the number of Homeless Youth in the us fails to tell the entire story because so many young people do not for the strict definition. Of homeless, for example, the department of housing and urban development defines Homeless People as those who are living in shelters, in transitional housing or outdoors. This definition fails to account for the many children or young adults who go from place to place, couch surfing, as its called with friends and relatives, or pay for short stays at motels. I just moved here, ive only been here about three weeks, are you looking for work, are you traveling . Im looking for work, yeah, in what uh, tech, and so rents are too much to, well, yeah, obviously, i dont have a job yet, part of the issue with homelessness in america is uh, yes you do have lot of Mental Health issues, but you also have even in addition to the Mental Health, you have 90, probably like, i my guesstimation be like 98 of the people that are that are homeless are on drugs, on drugs, on hard drugs. Like heroin, meth, alcohol uh, and and so until we address the drug and alcohol problem, youre going to have homelessness, and here in the United States, you know, the drug, i would say until we reform the drug laws, until we reform some the ways that we handle drugs and the prison system, um, i think that thats going to uh, continue to be a problem here in the United States. Together, we have shown that when europe is bold and united, it gets things done. Its time to come down from the ivory tower. 95 Million People in the eu are threaten by poverty, there is a broken Energy Market while the energy and Arms Industries are making record profits and last year it seem that italy was better performing as compared to other in the. Economies in in europe, this year and this quarter, it seems the the opposite. Homelessness has become a particularly bad political problem for big cities. Where it is most visible, in many big cities, homelessness has become criminalized even, this is because big corporations in the Housing Market know that having Homeless People wandering about a neighborhood spells trouble for the business, at nighttime even with the blankets and stuff like that down here, you still be freezing, this concrete gets so cold and crack since ive been out here about seven years, seen about about six. People down here pass away, a friend cant help me, i go stay on the train, you know back and forth, i started they all over again, you see my buggy all broke down, like im broke down now, continue to be a problem here in the United States and then also they use homelessness as a tool, a Political Tool, so in certain cities like portland, seattle, san francisco, los angeles. Um, they allow homelessness and they use it as a way to like, i think its like a form of terrorism, honestly, its a way to terrorize a community, drop property value, uh, you know, and so all these areas with massive homelessness theyre going to drop the property value, the banks will come in, theyll buy that property up, and then fast forward 20 years and itll be nice neighborhood and theyll make lots of money, so i believe the homeless and people, homelessness is being used as a weapon, and i think that uh, the poor people that are homeless, honestly they dont want anything different, they dont they maybe they know, especially in a place like la, like they know that theres help available, but they they would rather spend their lives high and drunk. Racial minorities experience homelessness a disproportionate rate. For example, black or africanamericans make up 13 of the general population, but 40 of the Homeless Population, young black people have also an 83 higher risk of become i think its pretty clearly a result of the past history of Racial Discrimination that, the United States, was in many ways in apart country up until the 1960s, at least in large parts of the country, had official legal discrimination on the basis of race, even though thats ended, um, that doesnt mean that there arent going to be intergenerational. Consequences uh, if people are born into poverty, the more will theyre much more likely to die in poverty than people who werent born into poverty, and thats going to be true of people of any racial background, but of course the longterm effects of jim crow, of that system of racial segregation are going to mean that those effects are distributed differently, but the real point i emphasize about this is that while the Racial Disparity definitely shows that you know its not just matter of. Of meritocracy or hard work or something that these are factors beyond peoples control. Um, the goal, as people like, you know, my friend adreed, would always say, the goal uh, shouldnt be to have society where we have exactly proportionally distributed uh, wealth and poverty, the goal should be vastly more economically equal society, mean its its not that the. Its not that the problem is that we have a disproportionate number of black people as opposed to white people sleep in the streets, its that ir reasonable society, no one would be sleeping in the streets. The overrepresentation of black and native americans in the Homeless Population is no accident. It is a result of historic and ongoing racism from slavery and violent land theft to informal and governmentbacked housing discrimination that persists even. To this very day, Research Shows that because of these massive burdens, people of color, particularly black and native americans are more likely to experience poverty and other vulnerabilities that place people at risk of homelessness. Its really sad, i i believe that uh, now is theres never been a better time than ever in the history of the world for uh a minority in america to rise up and and make an amazing life for themselves, but i feel like. Theres certain communities and certain cultures that are told from young age that you will never be anything because the color of your skin, you will never be anything, because this group over here is oppressing you, you are the oppressed, you are the oppressed, they are the oppressors and i feel like the black Community Unfortunately has been victims of that uh messaging so long that uh maybe some of them believe it, my message would be, no, youre not a victim, youre not oppressed, youre not, theres nothing wrong with you because the. Of your skin, get out there and get it, crush, its amazing, its a beautiful thing, and uh, thats its interesting because i feel like in america that is what the the leftest progressive. Liberal mentality wants to tell the black communities that you are oppressed, you are less than because of the color of your skin, you will never amount to anything, and uh, thats thats a horrible way, and so i feel a lot of people fall into that victim mentality, but economic and social vulnerabilities dont tell the entire story, data shows the poverty alone does not account for the disproportionate representation of black americans experiencing homelessness for example. The homeless response system, which trioges, supports and rehouses people experiencing homelessness, has not been designed to identify or respond to racial disparities. They fall into the other cultural programming that comes through the black community, which is like uh uh rap music, drug culture, gangster culture, violence, these things are perpetuated in that community and its hard for anybody to rise up out of it, but no, not a victim, you dont have to commit crime, you can, you can, you can thrive, and i know being a white man saying these things it may be construed as insensitive, because yes, i know that thats very hard living in uh, an impoverished community, uh, lack of resources, lack of healthy food, i know all this stuff to be true, but still theres ways to rise above and theres never been a better time than now to do it, um, and so i, i mean, i, my heart goes out absolutely to anybody thats suffering with uh, homelessness, drug addiction, and then once you get caught up. In the system uh again i know you could also make the same claim about how the africanamerican uh population is disproportionately represented in the prison system and so you know i think it goes back to drug laws too once the drug laws get reformed then you dont have so many black people getting harassed by the police and then you dont have so many people getting caught up in the system and then you dont have so many like violent shootings and so its kind of a it kind of stems from lot of these core issues but uh yeah i just i just feel like yes theres probably an overrepresentation of uh africanamericans both in the prison and Homeless Population. The political debate in the us seems to be in a state of partisan deadlock. Democrats and republicans seem to be in a constant state of fighting over small and big issues facing the country. This political rivalry of course, has its tol on the lives of americans. Here in the United States, you have uh the Progressive Left democrats, you have the hard conservative right, um conservatives, trying to both push equally opposing stories, i dont subscribe to any of it, im outside of both, i could sit back and i can watch both them fighting with each other and be like, well thats cute, thats hilarious, i can get some entertainment out of it, but ultimately i dont think that theres a that these politics or political debates will bear any fruit, and its only designed to keep us fighting with each other, but uh, i think again, like with the homeless issue, again i believe that that is used as a what we call it like a Political Tool thats kicked back and forth to uh get votes or support one way or the other you know its like uh its its they they use people to their advantage and thats one of the most deplorable awful things about politics is that people dont mean anything theyre just uh whether theyre being sent off to war to die or if theyre just being used as as political props with you know homelessness or just whatever you know politicians dont care about anybody and they just um care about their own power and and and wealth really. Indeed, severe polarization makes democracy vulnerable. In healthy democracies, opposing sides are seen as political adversaries to compete against and at times negotiate with one another. In deep polarized democracies though, the other side comes to be seen as an enemy near. To be vanquished in this tribal dynamic, each side views the other out group party with increasing distrust, bias and enmity, perceptions that if you win, lose grow, the problem with this pervasive atmosphere is that problems like Affordable Housing and homelessness do not get solved. Im lambatopic here on press tv and i want you to join me for cats and dogs where we take a quick look at dirty laundry in washington, bad manners at the united nations, and barking people in germany, literally. Thats all on press tv with me lembrapic and cats and dogs, dont miss it first of the headlines, Israeli Forces have shot and killed another Palestinian Youth doing raid in the occupied west bank. People have taken to the streets in burkina faso to show support for the hunta leaders on the anniversary of the military takeover of power in the african country. Also coming up the biggest us Automobile Workers Union calls on 700 more members to join a historic strike over a contract dispute with manufacturers