Kevin Gawora, 2022

Overview

Homelessness has been a chronic problem worldwide, including in developed countries. The number of unhoused individuals and families varies widely between countries, and within countries, due to housing policy, the cost of living, wage growth or decline, and the availability of resources to address mental health issues. In the United States, homelessness is a pervasive policy issue, with different cities and states enacting unique policies, as well as taking best practices from other localities, with varying results.

Washington, D.C. in particular has seen homelessness become a major issue, as media coverage describes sprawling tent cities and dangerous encounters with the unhoused. However, contrary

to popular opinion, the situation in D.C. has been improving in recent years, with the percentage of the population that is homeless falling by 39% from 2016 to 2021 (see Figure 1)1, likely partially due to the Homeward DC program implemented that year. Policies such as significant investment in homelessness prevention programs, the opening of the new 801 East men’s shelter, and the provision of smaller,service-enriched short-term family housing centers have provided the District with the necessary comprehensive approach to dealing with such a multi-faceted issue (Homeward DC). The mayor’s 2023 Fair Shot Budget sets a bold goal of 12,000 new affordable housing units by 2025 and allocates $31 million to further service expansion. Specifically, services in the Homeward DC program will be expanded, and crucially, providing permanent supportive housing vouchers to 500 individuals, 260 families, and 10 youths, likely continuing the positive trends in homelessness seen in the past five years.

Nationwide, there is a similar trend of an overall decrease in the percentage of people experiencing homelessness, but this trend has stalled and gone into reverse in recent years (see Figure 2). The trends in cities across the U.S. vary widely, with cities like Atlanta cutting their homeless rate by 12022 data is not shown because it is not yet available for all states and cities in the United States almost two-thirds, whereas in Los Angeles, it has more than doubled during the same time period (see Figure 3)2. This is due in part to varying changes in the cost of living and other economic factors, as well as different strategies for tackling homelessness by addressing different causes of the issue.

However, ominously, the homeless population of Washington DC is aging, introducing a new and urgent set of challenges to the city’s race to end homelessness. Advocates for people experiencing homelessness say that the homeless population in this region is aging, and that brings with it a slew of new health challenges that are contributing to the rise in deaths. As the shortage of affordable housing in the region continues to make headlines, finding permanent housing solutions for the homeless is tasking the resources of many support organizations.

States

Like with cities, there is a similar variation in homelessness trends between states. States have seen different trends in homelessness, depending on the cost of living, location, and access to services. Southern states like Florida and Georgia have seen their homelessness rates fall substantially, declining by 61 and 56 percentage points, respectively, since 2010 (see Figure 3). States with higher costs of living and that include the largest cities in the country, such as New York and California, have seen their homeless rate increase by 37 and 33 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the previous decade. These diverging trends can be partially explained by different statewide policies regarding homelessness, similar to that at the city level.

Differences in homelessness policy between states are largely ideological as Democratic states emphasize greater access to public services and affordable housing, while Republican states focus on the supply side by reducing regulations for new housing construction, and having a greater reliance on charities and the private sector to address the issue. However, each state faces unique circumstances, and Republican or

Note: data is estimated for some states and cities, as due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unsheltered individuals were not counted. The official counts are thus inaccurate, as they undercount the true homeless population. HUD documents acknowledge this discrepancy.

Democratic policies that are effective in one state may not be in another, indicating the need for focusing on policy effectiveness rather than which ideological framework has the “correct” solutions.

In California in 2016, the League of California Cities and California State Association of Counties partnered to create a Joint Homelessness Taskforce to facilitate knowledge sharing across counties and cities. Furthermore, since 2018, spending on homelessness has soared from $500 million to a projected $1.4 billion in FY 2022. Despite bold steps to address the issue, California still faces the largest homeless problem in the nation, signaling that more comprehensive policy changes are needed to tackle the challenge. By contrast, Illinois, another Democratic state, has seen success in reducing its homelessness rate, seeing it fall by 30% since the start of the last decade (see Figure 4). This was the result of, among other factors, the adoption of Housing First policies leading to more of the unsheltered homeless finding permanent shelter, and increases in federal and state homeless prevention resources. The recently passed  “Home Illinois” program comprehensively addresses the issue through a multipronged approach, including dedicating $62 million to create affordable housing and increasing funding for transitions to employment, thus continuing to work on reducing homelessness in the state.

Conservative-leaning states have also worked to deal with their homelessness issues, also with mixed results. Florida’s State Housing Trust Fund has been used to increase the supply of low-income housing, slowing rental increases. Furthermore, like other states, Florida follows a Housing First strategy of prioritizing housing before addressing other issues such as finding a job or mental health issues. The results have been that, despite steep rent increases, homelessness has decreased sharply (see Figure 4). However, in Kansas, the rate of homelessness has increased by almost 20% since 2010, in part due to a lack of increase in resources to address the issue (see Figure 4). The state declined to increase food stamp benefits at the beginning of the last decade and is the only state not to provide special packaging for homeless families who lack access to cooking and refrigeration. Furthermore, Kansas aggressively enforces a strict “no camping” law, which breaks up homeless tent cities, but without access to affordable housing, there is nowhere for these individuals and families to go, in effect sweeping the issue under the rug.

International

Looking outside the United States into other developed countries, the rate of homelessness across the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) varies substantially from country to country, although different counting methods could explain part of the divergence. For countries with available data, homelessness varied by 0.6 percentage points in both 2010 and 2019 (see Figure 4). The United States saw its homelessness rate fall from 0.21% to 0.17%, while, for example, in Latvia, it increased by 0.14 percentage points to 0.36%, and in Finland, it fell from 0.16% to 0.1%. The outlier of New Zealand can be explained by soaring housing costs greater than any other OECD nation, with prices in Auckland jumping 90% between 2008 and 2018. Although the United States is at the lower end of the range of homelessness rates, different countries have different definitions of housing. For example, in Sweden, they count an individual as homeless if they are in long-term living arrangements organized by Social Services, or live in private, short-term living arrangements, and in the Netherlands, they define homelessness as including temporary housing and staying with friends or family. By contrast, in the United States, homelessness is defined as anyone who is without permanent housing, or in any other non-permanent housing situation. Furthermore, it is important to note that there is some criticism regarding the methodology of homelessness data in that more people could be homeless than are actually counted. However, even if not perfectly accurate, the existing data sheds light onto important insights into the trends of homelessness at home and abroad and provokes further policy debate of how to best to tackle such a multi-faceted issue with a diverse range of causes.

 

Different policy prescriptions across the OECD also play a large role in accounting for the differences in homelessness in the developed world. Sweden’s housing market is highly deregulated, with municipal housing companies providing public housing in competition with private housing companies. However, scaling up Housing First initiatives has been difficult, migrants have added increased competition for housing, and companies face high production costs. These trends have contributed to soaring rents, exacerbating Sweden’s homelessness problem. Finally, the country has been without a national homelessness strategy since 2009, leading municipalities to create their own policies that are often uncoordinated and address different parts of the issue.

Conclusion

Homelessness remains a global issue, with the United States being no exception. Homelessness rates have diverged markedly across the country since the start of the previous decade, and reflect disparities in homelessness policies and economic conditions across both states and cities. In Washington, D.C., progress has been made in addressing the issue. But more work needs to be done. With local, state, and international cooperation to end homelessness, and the implementation of best practices, more progress can be made to ensure everyone has access to safe and secure housing.

More reading: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar/2021-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness-in-the-us.html

More reading: https://www.usich.gov/news/findingsand-limitationsof-the-2021-point-in-time-count/

#AHHDC #Atheists Helping the Homeless DC