California is used to be called the "Promise Land" during the Great Depression due to it giving people opportunity to gain wealth again. Until today some people still consider it as the "Promise Land", because of its job opportunities especially in technology and entertainment industries, climate that is not too extreme, and scenery the beaches, hills or mountains for outdoor activities. This caused more people to move in more in California increasing the demand yet the supply cannot keep up, since California also does not have the landscape for houses to be built. California is geographically made up of hills and mountains, so it is hard to build new houses. To top it off what makes building houses even harder is zoning laws. Zoning laws decide on what types of building are only allowed to be built in an area.

The prices of the land and housing in California keeps on increasing, but the rate the wages increase cannot match up. It is not that the wages is not moving, but the housing rates is just increasing at such a faster pace. As mentioned earlier the high demand, but low supply in housing in California which makes this tie back to "High Housing Rates" again. According to an article by CalMatters, October 2024, almost 1/3 of Californians are paying rent with half their income. Not only do they have less money for their other living expenses such as bills, groceries, and day-to-day expenses; this also makes it almost impossible to save up for future expenses since they are stuck in a loop trying to make ends meet to pay their rent.

For those who are mentally or physically challenged it is hard for them to keep or get a home since it is hard for them to also keep or get accepted to a job. Not only are they stressing about housing rates increasing, they are also stressing out about how they can get a job and keep them, and also how to treat themselves. This just makes them end up in a rabbit hole of expenses and stress.

Due to climate change that is mostly caused by burning fossil fuel, heat has been rising in California. The rising heat resulted to droughts, warmer season happens earlier and longer, and forest fires. According to California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) in 2024, in a span of 20 years about 10,000 acres were burned in California alone, and the year that peaked the most acres burned during 2020. Forest fires are also one of the main causes why homelessness not just because of it burning down houses, but also causing things such as temporary/permanent moving, difficult recovering from damages, and again limiting the options on where they can build.