Homelessness is a Housing Problem
by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern
Homelessness is a housing problem
Somewhat of a writeup on homelessness using a review and the author’s introduction to the economic problem.
Amazon published review of the book, “Homelessness Is a Housing Problem.”
Authors 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 and include mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility to explain. They find none of it explains 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.
AB: The authors “take” on Homelessness as detailed in their book. The charts are interesting as they begin to explain the differences in homelessness in various cities, counties and states (somewhat). Their introduction to the book makes for a sound basis for explaining more on the topic of homelessness. One clear point, where poverty is greater, the rate of homelessness is less. In other words, government recognizes the need. It still does not solve the issue though.
RATES OF HOMELESSNESS VARY WIDELY ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Why? Homelessness is a Housing Problem seeks to explain this variance and offer policy solutions for different regional contexts.
Homelessness is a Housing Problem, homelessness housing problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern
INDIVIDUAL VULNERABILITIES LIKE POVERTY DON’T EXPLAIN REGIONAL VARIATION
Contrary to expectations, rates of homelessness tend to be lower where poverty rates are higher.
Homelessness is a Housing Problem, homelessness housing problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern
HOUSING-RELATED FACTORS PREDICT RATES OF HOMELESSNESS
Over the course of the book, the researchers illustrate how absolute rent levels and rental vacancy rates are associated with regional rates of homelessness. Many other common explanations—drug use, mental illness, poverty, or local political context—fail to account for regional variation.
Homelessness is a Housing Problem, homelessness housing problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern
DEVELOPING A TYPOLOGY OF CITIES
The researchers group cities into categories to help readers understand different rates of homelessness. Cities can be grouped by population growth and the way in which their housing supplies respond to increases in demand.
More of the topic later.
I think I have been saying something like this for a long time. It is good to have someone do the numbers. But I wonder about that graph, could the rate of homelessness in cities just be a reflection of the fact that cities are places where the homeless can be in walking distance ot places they need to be? I can think of a few other possibilities…
but i am more interested in the possibility of building actual homes rather than shelters for the homeless. creating a reserve of low-cost housing, besides giving the homeless real shelter and a place to rebuild their lives from, the housing would also be available for emergency housing in case of natural disaster, or elderly housing for people who no longer need or can afford the big houses their children grew up in, or they built their more affluent years around, as well as “starter homes” for people just beginning their careers to avoid the rent trap. I am fairly sure this could be done…by government…at less cost than policing the homeless or providing prison-like”shelters.”
of course, getting the affluluent to understand this might be difficult.
One problem we’ve been seeing is that older housing doesn’t come down in price the way it is theoretically supposed to. Instead, older housing gets renovated and the neighborhood moves upmarket. This is especially true if the area in question has an amenity like a commuter line or park nearby.
Kaleberg:
Many older homes are also better built or can be. We live in a newer home, our first new one. We still talk about our first home. a cedar sided one in a hickory and oak forest on a quarter acre, our very first home. The mortgage rate was ~8% then. It was a cute house and great for two people or a small family.
The new one had 25 issues which the construction manager was balking at fixing. It became an “ok, I can play your game.” Went to Linked-In, took down a number of emails. Sent the list of issues to each one. This was stupid stuff like the special blinds my wife wanted, each blind had a rod to open and close them of a different length. The house was supposed to have Aprilaire filters, the 4-inch-thick ones. Checked out the one and it was fine. Popped the second and main one, and its filter box was for a one-inch-thick filter. Both were supposed to be the 4-inch-thick ones (oh we ran out of the boxes for the 4 inch ones). Hey look, I am not your quality-control guy.
On stuff I could see, it took a year to get everything fixed. This was a Meritage built home, Richmond built builders have more serious problems.
New is not a guarantee of no issues. And you may never find them all till years later when something goes wrong.
Bill,
We moved into our current house two years ago. It was built in 1935. Within a couple of days, we discovered that the cast iron stack pipe that drained the tub, sink and toilet on the 2nd floor had a six-foot crack. Had to replace with modern PVC. We also had to install radon remediation in the basement. Problems of more recent vintage included replacing 12 shark bite pipe joints and a patio door that was falling apart. I suppose you could blame us, since we didn’t have an inspection (the real estate market was white hot). Those and many other repairs occupied our first 18 months here. Old construction is no guarantee either.
as someone says, old is no guarantee either. you need to have an inspection. around here the city does that during construction…or is supposed to. I think my house was built in the 50’s when they still had real wood. does not have modern widows or wall insulation, but good ceiling and floor insulation. remarkably comfortable and cheap to heat..but I live in a mild climate.
google could probably show you some suggestive ideas for really modern houses..but you would need to know a lot before you could be sure they would work as advertised.
oh, and you really should have a lawyer. things you never thought of… (may turn out to be best fixed by you and forgotten.)
Similar research has been circulating for some time. If you have access to the Atlantic, The Obvious Answer to Homelessness, December 2022
Essentially mass homelessness is the product of a housing shortage that was intentional created to drive up property values for investor-homeowners.
Cities which allow housing to be built quickly enough to keep up with population growth don’t have homelessness crises. This pattern holds true not just in the US but globally.
In most cities there are more people than housing units. By mathematical necessity, the ‘surplus’ population will be forced to live rough. A non-trivial percentage of the homeless population works 9-5 in decent, stable, jobs but still live in their cars — or in shelters — because nothing else is available.
The solution to homelessness isn’t just social supports, it’s to build more housing.
For your consideration (meaning I have no hard data to back this up):
In an area high enough in poverty that the government has funding issues, housing that should be condemned is rented out instead.
Bathroom remodels are more profitable than new housing, so areas with an abundance of people well above poverty will have relative difficulty finding tradespeople to prioritize cheaper housing.
Arne
I think that’s where you need government to do it. hopefully they’ve learned something since
Melvina Reynolds.
Arne
that’s why t needs to be a government project.
hope they learned something since Malvina Reynolds.
Our community could use a few space efficient downtown buildings with condos. It would require tearing something down and this NYT article about cost of elevators would suggest we won’t get low cost housing. But it would free up space for a family that could better use my quarter acre.
I am certainly no expert, but I have heard some horror stories, There are real advantages to owning free and clear of someone ese’s financial interest and legal entanglements. Be careful out there.
Speaking as a semi-retired builder with two sons still building, one of whom is taking classes at the local cc to get his Inspector’s License, and someone has has been houseless a time or two … I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the lynchpin of the housing crisis is the lack of qualified builders to build houses, and the lack of inspectors to ensure it’s done right
However we got to this point is moot in the generally accepted vernacular, a waste of time and air: the bottom-line, boiled down to ones and zeros, balls on a brass monkey there’s not enough people that know how to build houses
Ten
and I am one of them. I do okay with sheds and other small buildings. but I learned that I do not know enough, and will not learn enough in real time, to build a decent house.
made me reluctantly accept the idea of having the goverment require inspection and building codes…though the government requirement priced me out of renovating the house i bought with the intention of renovating.
good luck with buying a house…or a highway…built by someone who don’t need no damn gummint telling him what to do.
good luck finding a government that doesn’t tax you beyond your means to do what you need to do.
my mother’s brothers were successful builders. they decided i was too stupid to learn the building trade so they sent me to college instead.