Pitchfork Economics: “Why can’t we talk about homelessness?”

The number of unhoused Americans is at a historically high rate – and Civic Action’s home city, Seattle, has the third-highest homeless population in the U.S. So, why is it so hard to talk about this crisis – and how do we begin to solve it? Listen to this episode of Pitchfork Economics to find out.

People are experiencing homelessness in nearly every American city. Homelessness is tragically widespread, but the issue is so partisanized that it’s difficult to even have a conversation about its root causes – much less how to solve the crisis. 

On an episode of Pitchfork Economics, we spoke with University of Washington professor Josephine Ensign, who spent 40 years working with homeless populations around the world as a researcher, nurse, and policy worker. 

Ensign says this crisis is caused by many factors, including the steady defunding of the Department of Housing and Urban Development services that support low-income housing developments, the gentrification of inner cities that have displaced people of color and people living in generational poverty, and the deinstitutionalization of people with severe mental health issues. 

In short, while housing affordability remains at the center of the issue, there's no single smoking gun that caused America's homelessness crisis. Instead, a wide array of policy failures, worsened by American leaders' 40-year love affair with trickle-down austerity, have led to this moment.

Sadly, there are many misconceptions about homelessness, so we’re working to educate the public and advocate for solutions that will help Americans find stable housing.

Thanks for being a part of this grassroots movement.

Paul Constant
Team Civic Action