Available From UC Press

Using rich and detailed data, this groundbreaking book explains why homelessness has become a crisis in America and reveals the structural conditions that underlie it.

In Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern seek to explain the substantial regional variation in rates of homelessness in cities across the United States. In a departure from many analytical approaches, Colburn and Aldern shift their focus from the individual experiencing homelessness to the metropolitan area. Using accessible statistical analysis, they test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain the regional variation observed across the country. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a far more convincing account. With rigor and clarity, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem explores U.S. cities' diverse experiences with housing precarity and offers policy solutions for unique regional contexts.

Gregg Colburn is Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, where he studies housing policy, housing affordability, and homelessness.

Clayton Page Aldern is a data scientist and policy analyst based in Seattle.
 

“There is no shortage of empirical research on homelessness in the academic literature. What is missing is a book like this one, which draws on established research to explain the scope, nature, and underlying causes of homelessness to a non-academic and non-specialist audience.”—Thomas Byrne, Associate Professor of Social Welfare Policy, Boston University

"Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern show convincingly that rents and rental vacancy rates are key drivers of city-to-city variation in rates of homelessness. The clear presentation and graphs provide an intuitive understanding of the difference between the causes of rates of homelessness and vulnerability factors that increase risk for individuals."—Marybeth Shinn, author of In the Midst of Plenty: Homelessness and What to Do About It

"This excellent book makes a strong case that only the growing gap in affordable housing—not individual failings—can explain the problem of homelessness. The book describes how and why this gap grows and how it affects homelessness, and the possible solutions offered here give us a solid direction for the future."—Nan Roman, President and CEO, National Alliance to End Homelessness