Homelessness

Ayse Imrohoroglu and Kai Zhao

No 2022-17, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper examines the effectiveness of several policies in reducing the aggregate share of homeless in a dynamic general equilibrium model. The model economy is calibrated to capture the most at-risk groups and generates a diverse population of homeless with a significant fraction becoming homeless for short spells due to labor market shocks and a smaller fraction experiencing chronic homelessness due to health shocks. Our policy experiments show housing subsidies to be more effective in reducing the aggregate homeless share, mostly by helping those with short spells, than non-housing policies. For the chronically homeless population, a means-tested expansion of disability income proves to be effective. We also find that some policies that result in higher exit rates from homelessness, such as relaxation of borrowing constraints, help the currently homeless population but lead to a larger homeless share at the steady state by increasing the entry rate.

Keywords: Inequality; Housing; Income Shock; Health Shock; General Equilibrium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E20 H20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge and nep-hea
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Related works:
Working Paper: Homelessness (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uct:uconnp:2022-17

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