["When rents skyrocket amidst a severe shortage of affordable
housing and a shredded safety net, more people become homeless. It
really is that simple—and preventable." ]
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SKY-HIGH US HOUSING COSTS FUEL RECORD SURGE IN HOMELESSNESS  
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Jake Johnson
August 15, 2023
Common Dreams
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_ "When rents skyrocket amidst a severe shortage of affordable
housing and a shredded safety net, more people become homeless. It
really is that simple—and preventable." _

, Public Policy Institute of California

 

Persistently high housing costs and the end of pandemic-era relief
programs have fueled a sharp increase in homelessness in the U.S. this
year, according to an analysis
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Monday by _The Wall Street Journal_.

The _Journal_ reported that homelessness nationwide—from Denver to
New Orleans to New York City—is up 11% so far this year compared to
2022, when more than 582,000 people experienced homelessness.

If this year's increase holds, the _Journal_ noted, it would mark
the largest jump since 2007, the year the U.S. government began
tracking comparable data.

"We and others have repeatedly predicted this increase in
homelessness," Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low
Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), wrote
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response to the new figures. "When rents skyrocket amidst a severe
shortage of affordable housing and a shredded safety net, more people
become homeless. It really is that simple—and preventable."

NLIHC observed in a June report
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pandemic, housing advocates and impacted people helped bring about the
enactment of unprecedented policy measures, including $46 billion in
emergency rental assistance (ERA) and a national eviction moratorium,
that reduced suffering for millions of households."

"Additionally, economic impact payments, increases to unemployment
insurance and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
benefits, and childcare tax credits helped keep low- and middle-income
renters afloat," the report added. "Yet now that emergency resources
are being depleted and many of these measures phased out, low-income
renters are once again facing high rents and increased housing
instability, with eviction filing rates reaching or surpassing
pre-pandemic levels... and homelessness increasing in many
communities."

"The Covid relief funds provided a buffer. We're seeing what happens
when those resources aren't available."

As pandemic relief measures and renter protections faded in 2021 and
last year, evictions surged
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housing costs continued to rise across the country, with the median
national rent surpassing $2,000 a month for the first time
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The Government Accountability Office has estimated
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a $100 increase in the median U.S. rent is associated with a 9%
increase in homelessness.

"The Covid relief funds provided a buffer," Donald Whitehead Jr.,
executive director at the National Coalition for the Homeless, told
the _Journal_ on Monday. "We're seeing what happens when those
resources aren't available."

Data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development indicates
that, in 2022, more than 138,000 people in the U.S. were chronically
unhoused, meaning they were unhoused for a year or more or
periodically unhoused over three years.

In a letter
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Federal Housing Finance Agency late last month, a group of more than
30 U.S. economists argued that federal rent control and stronger
tenant protections are necessary to "meaningfully change the
trajectory of the housing crisis."

"High rents and a lack of tenant protections negatively impact tenants
and their families, as well as the larger economy," the economists
wrote. "At the household level, high rents lead to housing insecurity,
homelessness, health challenges, and economic precarity for
already-struggling renters."

"At the national level," they added, "rent makes up about one-third of
the Consumer Price Index, and rent increases have played a major role
in the recent uptick in inflation and run the risk of posing long-term
threats to the nation’s economy."

_Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* homelessness
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* high rents
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* Evictions
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