The Economics of Homelessness

The specific situation that a family may be homeless is the unique situation of about 40,000 people who experience in New York City every single day. However, the overall problem has common themes such as low wages, high rents, unemployment.

Recently announced data shows the deterioration of homeless situation and situation.

This week the National End of Homeless Alliance announced the 2011 Homelessness Report outlining the scope of the problem. They discovered that between 2008 and 2009, the number of homeless people in the country increased 3%, the number of homeless families increased the most. In addition, during this time the homeless risk factors have become more common.

The actual income of working poor people declined by 2% and the revenues of some state decreased by more than 10%.

Most households with incomes below federal poverty line use more than half of their monthly income for rent.

Please keep in mind that these indicators are mainly from the beginning of recession. According to recent data, most of the new work comes from low-income industries, and the economic situation of many families has hardly improved. This is what our homeless family is trying to recover, which remains a major flaw in the priority approach to homelessness in the homeless department of New York City.

As the disparity between real income and housing costs continues to expand, homeless people are affecting more and more families, including those who used to work at a high pension. These facts remind us of the structural causes of homelessness and what kind of countermeasures are ultimately needed to solve this problem.

The first field to be integrated is economics. The relevant theory related to economics and homeless is the structural theory of Fitzpatrick, Kemp and Clinker and explains the four major structural categories leading to homelessness. In addition, the concept to consider is the effect of structural variable changes. Before it was considered to be the main problem of our society, homeless changed in many different ways. For example, the number and appearance of homeless people has changed significantly. The number of homeless people began to increase since the late 1980s and continued to increase in the 1990s (Hargrave, 1999, 2 pages). In Toronto only in the early 1980s, the housing system accommodated about 1,200 people. However, in 1996, the number of residential beds increased to 4,000 and by 1998 it reached 7,000 per night (Hulchanski, p. 11). This indicates that when the homeless is overloaded, the evacuation center will be busy with the passage of time.

Early in the 1980s, people in urban areas, such as homeless shelter laborers, noticed changes in their customers' demographics. Many homeless literature points out that the 1980s is a new era of homeless, homeless families are "new homeless people". Homeless in the 1980s. Due to the increased use of evacuation centers by families at the time, complicated roots and dissemination have marked 10 years as an appropriate starting point for discussing homeless families (Congressional Research Service, 1995, IP 314 H). Homeless is also not just a permanent social problem, it is beginning to be regarded as a temporary crisis.