What Does NOT Cause Homelessness? (Oh, and What DOES?)

At the meeting held by Council Members Gates, Kleinman and McGough earlier this month, Cindy J. Crain, our President and CEO, touched upon what does not cause homelessness[1]. This is an extremely important point to elaborate on, as it is frequently misunderstood. The “noise” created by this misunderstanding takes up much “bandwidth”, that could and should go into what does cause homelessness. After all, even the sharpest archer will find it hard to hit a target, if she can’t even see it.

So, what does not cause homelessness? 

• It is NOT poverty. Of the 435,000 people living in poverty in Dallas County, only a few thousand become homeless every year.
• It is NOT lack of affordable housing. In the United States 11.8 million renter households are severely cost-burdened, i.e. pay more than 50% of their income on housing. Only about 565,000 persons are homeless.
• It is NOT addiction or substance abuse. Reliable studies show that 40 million Americans are addicts, and another 80 million are risky users. We do not have 120 million Americans who are or are at risk of becoming homeless. 
• It is NOT mental illness. 44 million Americans experience mental illness every year. We do not have 44 million Americans who are or are at risk of becoming homeless. 
• It is NOT lack of religion or faith. Denmark, for instance, has extremely low levels of religious belief. However, the levels of poverty and want in Denmark are markedly lower than in the United States. 

Now, you may believe, nay there is evidence, that poverty is bad for society, that there is not enough affordable housing, that substance abuse causes problems, that folks with mental illness need help, and that faith has positive influences in people's lives. True, but that still does not negate the truth of each of the bullet points above. 

So, what does cause homelessness?

Most of us will never become homeless because of the fact that we can and would lean on our network of social connections. Our families, friends and social groups would be there for us to call on. The facts are that homelessness occurs when this network of social connections breaks down, and can no longer be activated. 

 

The way we solve this problem is to put in place a homeless response system, that steps into the gap created by that breakdown, and ideally helps rebuild it too. That is why the focus of Opening Doors, the national strategic plan to end homelessness, is on developing in every community an effective and unified homeless response system. That is the only thing that will make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.

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[1] Cindy’s remarks and this piece draw upon ideas we have learned from our good friend, Dr. Iain De Jong.