Housing Subsidies and Homelessness: A Simple Idea

Brendan O'Flaherty
Additional contact information
Brendan O'Flaherty: Department of Economics, Columbia University

SPP Research Papers, 2012, vol. 5, issue 2

Abstract: Reducing homelessness is an indisputable social good, and housing subsidies offer one way to do so. However, subsidies come in many different varieties and are intricately bound up with economic and social policies. This paper, written by one of North America’s leading urban economists, cuts through the tangle and argues that the simplest approach is the best. The ideal way to deter people from harmful acts is to reward them for abstaining. Thus, to combat homelessness, governments should offer housing allowances to people for every night they are not homeless. This optimal homelessness-reducing home allowance (OHRHA) is open to adjustment to suit individual circumstances and the effects of homelessness on different demographics. It is meant to reduce homelessness by aligning individual and societal incentives, forcing people to bear the consequences or realize the benefits that their actions impose on others. The author explores methods for financing OHRHA, examines means for tailoring it to meet the diverse needs of the homeless and discusses the policy’s effect on urban housing markets, all while comparing and contrasting the proposal to existing homelessness-reduction measures in Alberta, Canada and the US.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016 ... -housing-subsidy.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:clh:resear:v:5:y:2012:i:2

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SPP Research Papers from The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bev Dahlby ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).