Homelessness Is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns

Using rich and detailed data, this groundbreaking book explains why homelessness has become a crisis in America and reveals the structural conditions that underlie it.

In Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern seek to explain the substantial regional variation in rates of homelessness in cities across the United States. In a departure from many analytical approaches, Colburn and Aldern shift their focus from the individual experiencing homelessness to the metropolitan area. Using accessible statistical analysis, they test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city--including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility--and find that none explain the regional variation observed across the country. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a far more convincing account. With rigor and clarity, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem explores U.S. cities' diverse experiences with housing precarity and offers policy solutions for unique regional contexts.

Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 03/15/2022
Pages: 284
Weight: 0.71lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780520383784

About the Author
Gregg Colburn is Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, where he studies housing policy, housing affordability, and homelessness.

Clayton Page Aldern is a data scientist and policy analyst based in Seattle.