A claim attributed to a Nigerian singer, Seun Kuti, regarding the total number of homeless people in Africa has surfaced on the X platform.
The claim was made in a post by @onejoblessboy on X who attributed the source of the claim to Seun Kuti. It was posted alongside a 3-minute, 21 seconds footage of the artist speaking.
Part of the audio footage transcribed below read:
…Even them wey get capital, capitalism is failing. America cannot provide public services. Go to America, go to somewhere like San Francisco. The amount of homeless people in San Francisco pass the amount of homeless people for the whole Africa, I no wan hear anything wey anybody wan talk. Bring the whole homeless people for Africa outside, lets count them and let’s go to San Francisco and count. Go L.A, New York…
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According to the video, Kuti was comparing the standard of living and homeless people in America to that of Africa while adding that no one could debunk his claim.
He stated further in the video that the crime rate in East London was worse than in Africa, citing examples of watches being snatched and the owners stabbed in the streets of East London while concluding the video with a comparison of minimum wages in Nigeria and America.
The post had the caption:
The amount of homeless people in San Francisco pass the number of homeless people in the whole of Africa – Seun Kuti
Since the inception of the post on June 4, 2024, it has garnered over 600,000 views, more than 600 reposts, 368 comments and over 2,200 likes as of June 14, 2024.
CLAIM
The total number of homeless people in San Francisco is more than those in Africa.
THE FINDINGS
Checks by The FactCheckHub indicate that the claim is FALSE!
A data report on the City and County of San Francisco‘s website note that the 2024 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count conducted in January 2024 found that 2,912 people were found to be sleeping unsheltered on San Francisco’s streets, either in tents, structures, or on the street which is a 13% decrease from 2022 when the number was 3,347.
PIT Counts is the gathering of data on those residing in transitional housing and emergency shelters (also known as the sheltered count). PIT Counts additionally gather data regarding those who sleep in automobiles, on deserted homes, on the streets, or in other locations not intended for human habitation (the unsheltered count).
READ: Nigeria does NOT have the highest rape rate in the world
A Business Insider report, citing World Population Review as its source ranked the top ten African countries with the highest homelessness rate with Nigeria topping the list at 24.4 million people and Burkina Faso with the least homelessness rate at 700,000 people. The total sum of homeless people across the countries listed in the report is 54.2 million.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the total number of homeless people in San Francisco is more than those in Africa is FALSE; the number of homeless people in San Francisco, according to the 2024 PIT count, is 2,912 while the total number of homeless people in Africa is 54.2 million, data from the World Population Review revealed.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].
