{"id":18768,"date":"2022-08-01T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=18768"},"modified":"2022-10-09T04:08:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T08:08:17","slug":"lack-of-affordable-housing-is-the-leading-cause-of-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/lack-of-affordable-housing-is-the-leading-cause-of-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of Affordable Housing Is The Leading Cause of Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s Not Drugs, Alcohol, or Mental Illness, as Many People Still Think<\/span><\/h2>\n

If you\u2019ve been reading here for a while now, this information should not surprise you. But many people still refuse to believe it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite pervasive notions to the contrary, the most significant cause of homelessness is not substance use, mental health crisis, or a general moral failing. It\u2019s the simple result of insufficient resources being invested into building affordable housing<\/a> options for everyone who needs them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Often the simplest explanation is the most correct.<\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers Examine the Data<\/span><\/h3>\n

An easy way to rule out these oft cited but incorrect \u201ccauses\u201d of homelessness is to note that things like substance use, and mental illness occur at roughly the same rate in places all over the country. However, homelessness tends to be concentrated more in certain areas than others.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it were true that drugs, alcohol, and mental illness caused homelessness in most cases, we would expect that reflected in the data, with levels of homelessness being relatively even all over as a portion of the local population.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what we actually see when we examine the data tells a different story entirely. Researchers Clayton Page Aldern and Gregg Colburn found that all across the country, the communities with the highest housing costs had the highest rates of homelessness per capita.<\/span><\/p>\n

This can be hard to see when looking at raw homeless population numbers like these:<\/span><\/p>\n