There were many factors, including the federal government deciding to slash the budget for affordable housing. "In the 1970s, there was an adequate supply of affordable units for every low-income household that needed one - and we really didn't have homelessness," Roman says.īy the 1980s, homelessness emerged as a chronic issue. "And people who have a strike against them - because they have mental illness or a substance abuse disorder or a disability - are the least likely to get the chair." "It's sort of a game of musical chairs," Roman says. When incomes don't keep pace with the cost of rent, a cascade effect ripples through the housing market: High-income folks start renting places that middle-income folks used to rent, middle-income people start renting places that low-income folks used to rent, and low-income folks are left scrambling. But Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, says the primary cause of the crisis is simple: Housing has gotten way too scarce and expensive.Ī few years ago, a team of economists at Zillow found that once cities cross a threshold where the typical resident must spend more than a third of their income on housing, homelessness begins to spike rapidly. The horrors of childhood trauma and poverty, mental illness and chronic drug abuse surely add to the likelihood that someone lives on the streets. There are many contributors to the problem. As of January 2020, California alone had about 151,000 inhabitants experiencing homelessness. Tent cities filled with poverty-stricken people have sprouted up from San Diego to Seattle. San Francisco is pretty typical of major American cities these days, especially on the West Coast.
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