 THE ECONOMICS OF HOMELESSNESS: THE EVIDENCE FROM NORTH AMERICAJohn Quigley and Steven Raphael European Journal of Housing Policy, 2001, vol. 1, issue 3, 323-336 Abstract: It is generally believed that the increased incidence of homelessness in the US has arisen from broad societal factors - changes in the institutionalization of the mentally ill, increases in drug addiction and alcohol usage, etc. This paper reports on a comprehensive test of the alternate hypothesis that variations in homelessness arise from changed circumstances in the housing market and in the income distribution. We utilize essentially all the systematic information available on homelessness in US urban areas - census counts, shelter bed counts, records of transfer payments, and administrative agency estimates. We use these data to estimate the effects of housing prices, vacancies, and rentto-income ratios upon the incidence of homelessness. Our results suggest that simple economic principles governing the availability and pricing of housing and the growth in demand for the lowest quality housing explain a large portion of the variation in homelessness among US metropolitan housing markets. Furthermore, rather modest improvements in the affordability of rental housing or its availability can substantially reduce the incidence of homelessness in the US. Date: 2001 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:eurjhp:v:1:y:2001:i:3:p:323-336 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/14616710110091525 Access Statistics for this article European Journal of Housing Policy is currently edited by Mark Stephens More articles in European Journal of Housing Policy from Taylor and Francis Journals |
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