Understanding the homeless crisis and what we can do about it - Part 4

The Real Causes of Homelessness

In the three previous posts, I presented the following arguments why Portland’s homeless crisis is far worse than most other cities in the country.

Part 1 – Three Common Misconceptions About Homelessness

Part 2 – Our Compassion Actually Enables the Homeless Crisis to Continue

Part 3 – Generous Benefits Enable the Homeless to Live on Our Streets

If you missed reading any of these posts, click on the links above.

In this post, I address the underlying causes of homelessness as proposed by our elected officials and by those organizations that deal with the homeless on a daily basis.

What our elected officials believe is the primary cause of homelessness

We have been repeatedly told by our elected officials in Portland that a lack of affordable housing is the primary cause of homelessness. They believe a combination of high apartment rents and a lack of affordable single-family housing is to blame.

I agree that Portland does have a significant housing affordability problem. No question. Housing prices and rental rates have soared in recent years. But the housing crisis is not fueling the homeless crisis. They are two separate crises with two different sets of underlying causes. If a lack of affordable housing is not the primary cause of homelessness, what is?

The precursor to homelessness

Brandi Tuck, the Executive Director of Path Home made this insightful observation: “You don’t become homeless when you run out of money. You become homeless when you run out of relationships.” In other words, people who are homeless no longer have family or friends to fall back on when times get difficult. If they did, they wouldn’t be homeless. A lack of relationships should be considered the precursor to homelessness. In other words, the absence of family and friends does not cause a person to become homeless, but it may become the first step towards that happening.

The real cause of homelessness

But what are the underlying causes of homelessness? Hope for the Homeless Foundation over the past three years has vetted twenty-five nonprofits in the Portland area that help the homeless to determine which organizations deserve to be financially supported.10 During the interview process the executive directors of these nonprofits are asked, “What underlying causes of homelessness do you address with the people you serve?”

The top five reasons for homelessness that are mentioned most often are:

1. Mental illness

2. Addiction

3. Trauma caused by domestic violence or veterans suffering from PTSD

4. Physical disabilities

5. Lack of living wage job skills

A lack of affordable housing didn’t even make the top five list.

So how do we best help the homeless get off the streets and into permanent housing? In my next post, I will present two polar opposite approaches to helping the homeless return to stability, so they are no longer homeless.