Homelessness and the Low Income Housing Crisis

Abstract

The intervening decades have seen a transformation of the housing stock. The overriding housing problem is no longer quality, but the wide and growing gap between the cost of housing, including utilities, and the incomes of a growing number of households. This article examines theaffordability gap in housing and suggests that it is the underlying cause of homelessness. Housing assistance to low income families is therefore a logical solution to the problem, in combination with other responses. (Journal abstract, edited.)