It's gotten considerably worse but nowhere near California bad. California has a high population, high homeless population, and other states ship their homeless to there. Providence is rough, especially in spots like over on and around Smith or Thayer but places like LA and even Portland, OR are like the perfect storm of shit when it comes to homeless populations.

It just feels worse than it is because the city is so small and the homeless are so spread out due to cops breaking up their encampments, so you encounter them more frequently instead of out west where they're common but they try to congregate in camps. Wickenden is definitely starting to build up a bit though.

Rental costs are fucking skyrocketing faster than jobs around here pay, utilities are shooting up, plus some people still catching up from the pandemic as not everyone got the checks. It's going to be a very rough winter. People who work service jobs are finding themselves increasingly fucked and those of us on social security and disability are finding ourselves without any resources after the pandemic and shifting of resources. If I wasn't a trans woman that found a room for rent on Facebook, I'd be homeless right now.