If someone knows of a study showing that homelessness is voluntary I would love to see
it. I've never heard that claimed before for the obvious reason -- how would you ask
about it? I can't imagine that a majority of homeless would say that they would prefer
living on the street no matter what their resources were or if free safe shelter were
available. I do know that many homeless people will only go to a shelter when it is
necessary due to the weather (and sometimes not then) because shelters are evidently
dangerous places where things get stolen and people get knifed. I can imagine this
being the source of the notion that homeless choose homelessness.
A few years ago I read the literature on homelessness. As I remember: 1) Mental
illness is a problem for only about 1/4th of the homeless. A majority did have drug or
alcohol problems. 2) Deinstitutionalization has very little to do with the rise in
homelessness as most deinstitutionalization took place a decade before the rise in
homelessness (which those of us who lived through it will recall as taking place in
the early 1980s). 3) The rise in homelessness correlated with a large cut back in
support for low income housing, but the mechanism by which this would have produced
the rise in homelessness is hard to describe since the people who were showing up as
homeless were not the type who would have been in public housing and public housing
never covered more than a fourth of those eligible anyway. 4) Four things which are
thought to have contributed to the rise in homelessness: a) Building codes that made
SRO hotels untenable, b) a steep rise in housing costs due mainly to !
a steep rise in real interest rates and a change in the tax treatment of rental
housing, c) the elimination or sharp reduction of state general assistance programs,
d) the 1980/82 recessions.
If these are the factors then to the extent its a-c in some sense the rise is
voluntary since a) and b) mean that the price is going up and c) means that income is
going down. Simple supply and demand says that fewer people will buy housing in those
circumstances. But that doesn't mean that any individual feels that s/he (almost
entirely he in this case) chose to be homeless. Lots were living with other people and
for one reason or other were kicked out. Some, but not many, were kicked out of a
house or apartment for non-payment after a job loss. These people tend to have very
short spells of homelessness, but it can then be very hard for an individual to get
off the streets once they are there. Lots of employers won't hire someone without an
address and lots of places won't rent to someone without a job. This impresses me as
one area where private charity and even government assistance are reasonably in order.
Particularly if the government is going to insist on putting quali!
ty restrictions in place that put housing out of the reach of many people who
otherwise could afford it.
-- Bill Dickens
William T. Dickens
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 797-6113
FAX: (202) 797-6181
E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
AOL IM: wtdickens
