The rate of homelessness has been on the rise since 2017, and state and local governments have attempted to address the issue. In Massachusetts, the City of Boston announced an action plan in 2015 that aimed to <\/span>decrease chronic and veteran homelessness<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by 19 percent and 3 percent respectively. While the city has made notable progress, in 2021, 15,000 individuals experienced homelessness in Boston, with over 2,000 of them being veterans or chronically homeless.<\/span><\/p>\n On a federal level, the Biden-Harris administration announced, in 2022, a strategic plan to\u00a0<\/span>prevent and halt homelessness<\/span><\/a>. The administration set an ambitious goal to reduce homelessness by 25 percent by 2025. However, since 2020, homelessness has\u00a0<\/span>increased by 0.3<\/span><\/a> percent, pushing the objective to end homelessness further out of reach.<\/span><\/p>\n How do we end homelessness? Associate professor of social work Thomas Byrne<\/a> shared a phrase he once<\/span> heard the head of a homeless services agency use: \u201cthe solution to the problem is in the name of the problem.\u201d\u00a0 That is, by definition, people are homeless because they lack a home, and thus if we provide them with a home, they are no longer homeless. So, if we have good evidence about what works to end homelessness, why haven\u2019t we made more progress? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We asked three faculty members from three different academic disciplines to share their thoughts on the country\u2019s homelessness crisis and what it would take to end it.<\/span><\/p>\n Katherine Levine Einstein, an associate professor of political science, specializes in American politics, and urban politics and policy. She studies the politics of housing in the United States to understand the housing crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n Catherine Caldwell-Harris, an associate professor of psychology, studies the emotional reactivity to language and has produced groundbreaking research in psycholinguistics.<\/span><\/p>\n Loretta Lees, a professor of sociology, studies gentrification, urban policy, and urban social theory. In 2022, she published her book\u00a0<\/span>Defensible Space: Mobilisation in English Housing Policy and Practice<\/span><\/i>, co-authored with Elanor Warwick.<\/span><\/p>\n Katherine Levine Einstein<\/b><\/a>, associate professor of political science<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The primary cause of homelessness is insufficient affordable housing<\/a>. Escalating housing prices have left many Americans in precarious living situations, sometimes leading to eviction and homelessness. Once an individual loses their home, securing new housing becomes a formidable challenge: a lack of a fixed address can lead to job loss, challenges in obtaining social services and public benefits, and an increased likelihood of experiencing the punitive policies of America\u2019s carceral state, such as fines or citations for illegal camping or panhandling.<\/p>\n Communities with abundant, affordable housing experience lower rates of homelessness. To end homelessness, America must make housing more affordable. Doing so is conceptually simple, but politically complicated: America must\u00a0build more housing<\/a>. Local governments must remove land use regulations and zoning laws that\u00a0make it difficult to build housing of all types<\/a>. State and federal policymakers should incentivize (or, ideally, require) local land use laws to be set to allow for greater housing density. With their superior financial resources, state and federal governments should also focus subsidy efforts on increasing the\u00a0supply\u00a0of new housing.<\/p>\n Building new housing unfortunately takes time, making this a long-term policy solution. In the short-term, to alleviate the suffering of people who are currently unhoused, federal, state, and local governments must better coordinate housing subsidies and social services\u2013and eschew policy approaches that emphasize policing homelessness. But, ultimately, if American communities hope to end homelessness, they must take the politically courageous step of building more housing, even in places with deep-seated opposition to new homes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/cas\/files\/2023\/08\/Katherine-Levine-Einstein-2.png\")
America is in the midst of a homelessness crisis<\/a>. The challenges are especially acute in cities, which are disproportionately home to America\u2019s unhoused. Addressing this problem is of paramount importance: unhoused people experience greater physical and mental health struggles, higher mortality rates, and poorer education, economic, and social outcomes.<\/p>\n
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A simple google of the question, \u201cHow do we end homelessness,\u201d reveals many websites, position papers, and easy-to-read bullet-pointed plans. The obstacle is not knowledge. The obstacles are willpower and values. Does our society value an end to homelessness? Simple answer: No.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/cas\/files\/2023\/08\/Loretta-Lees-e1690913838694.jpg\")
Homelessness is a complex issue, there are many reasons why people find themselves homeless. It can affect all types of people, at any time and anywhere. Under international law housing is a human right, yet it is often viewed as a commodity. The UN talks about being adequately housed \u2013 that is having security of tenure, which means living without the threat of eviction, in keeping with your culture or community, and having access to employment, services, and education.<\/p>\n