Legislative Updates 
Building Infrastructure
A primary reason that wide-scale homelessness did not exist twenty-five years ago is that the infrastructure of housing, income and services that supports poor people has changed. Remedies to homelessness must take place within the context of re-building this infrastructure. Although we can stop people who lose their housing from spending lengthy periods of time homeless, ultimately we will not be able to stop people from having housing emergencies until we address their housing, income and service needs.
Housing
Most poor people rent housing, and a great many poor renter households are at an extremely high risk of homelessness. This is because so many of them, 12.3 million individuals or 5.4 million familiesi, have a housing affordability crisis. They pay more than half of their income for rent, and therefore have no buffer to deal with unforeseen expenses such as car breakdowns, the need to leave a job to care for a sick child, or school costs. Should such economic crises arise, they are vulnerable to losing their housing and becoming homeless.
Part of this problem is income-related, but there is also an extreme and growing shortage of affordable housing units in the country. In 1995, the number of low-income renters exceeded the number of low-cost units by 4.4 million.ii This problem is getting worse. While the number of households needing housing support has increased, the number of units affordable to them has decreased. 370,000 unsubsidized units affordable to extremely low income renters were lost between 1991 and 1997iii Federal housing subsidy can help address the problem, but here again supply does not keep up with demand. The number of units receiving direct federal subsidies has dropped by 65,000 in the past four years.iv Even where housing subsidy is available, it does not always solve housing problems. According to HUD, 1.3 million households that receive some sort of housing assistance still have a severe rent burden.v
In short, housing is a serious problem for lower income Americans including those who work. Yet stable housing is essential to achieve national goals of improved education, safety, health care and employment. There are existing housing programs to address these issues, but they are not adequate. Of those people who are eligible for housing assistance (based on income or status), as many do NOT receive assistance as DO receive it, because of inadequate funding.
People become homeless because of the lack of affordable housing. The supply of housing that is affordable and available to low income people should be increased. In addition, subsidies that allow people to achieve stability in decent housing should be regarded as good investments in a productive society.
Income
Work does not pay for housing. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is no community in the nation in which a person working at minimum wage can afford (using the federal standard of affordability) to rent a one-bedroom unit. Averaging across the nation, a full-time worker would have to make $11.08 per hour (215% of the minimum wage) in order to afford a two-bedroom rental unit. Alternatively, a person could work at minimum wage for an average of 86 hours per weekvi.
For the poorest Americans, reduced incomes are part of a long-term trend. Wages for the lowest-paid workers have gone down substantially in real terms over the past 20 years. The wage for a worker at the tenth percentile (i.e. with wages that were higher than ten percent of workers, and lower than 90 percent) was $6.52 per hour (in 1998 dollars) in 1979. By 1998 it had declined to $5.84, up from a low of $5.37 in 1996. This drop mirrors a drop in the purchasing power of the minimum wage, which declined from $6.29 in 1979 (1997 dollars) to $5.15 in 1997, where it has remained.vii
The decline in real wages has gone along with an even greater deterioration in the availability and purchasing power of public benefits for the poorest and most afflicted people. In 1995, Congress amended the Supplemental Security Income program so that drug and alcohol addiction could not be considered grounds for disability. As a result, approximately 140,000 people, whose addictions and other disabilities were so severe that they made it impossible to work, lost benefits immediately. From the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, many states eliminated programs of "General Assistance" or "General Relief," that provided minimal benefits to unemployed people who were not eligible for any other benefit program. Then, in 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which affected food stamp allocations for many people, eliminated SSI eligibility for some children, and turned the administration of welfare programs for families over to the states, through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
While there has been much controversy about the overall impact of welfare reform, one fact that all concerned seem to agree on is that incomes of the very poorest families have gone down. Despite a superbly healthy economy, for example, the income of the poorest 20% of female headed families with children (six million people) fell $580 per family between 1995 and 1997.viii The erosion of income was caused largely by sharp reductions in government cash and food assistance for poor families.
The rising tide of the strong economy is indeed lifting boats. However, poor people are experiencing far less benefit than those of higher incomes. Most importantly, any benefit they may experience is not adequate to meet the increasing cost of housing. We must continue to support efforts to create a wage and benefits that allow households to pay for basic expenses, including housing, food and health care.
Services
People often need services, and low-income people must turn to public systems to secure the services they need. Some need services in order to work and earn the money to pay rent. Others need services, regardless of their income, in order to meet their basic responsibilities as a tenant and remain in housing.
Mental health treatment is essential so that people with mental illness can earn money and pay rent, and for those with the most severe illnesses, so they can meet other responsibilities as tenants. A great deal of current chronic homelessness can be traced to the lack of a system of community treatment, linked with housing, to replace the system of state hospitals that have been closed in large numbers in recent decades. The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors estimated that 57,000 people were cared for in state psychiatric hospitals in 1997, down 37% from that number in 1990. This decline is part of a long-term trend that began in the 1950s. Community-based mental health treatment has not kept up with this decline.
The substance abuse treatment system is facing a severe treatment gap. The National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors indicates that 50% of those who need treatment receive it.ix Waiting times for treatment at publicly-funded clinics preclude effective help for those without stable housing.
Child care is another important service. As welfare becomes less relevant to low-income communities, single parents must work in order to stay housed. Public child care is especially important for those at risk of homelessness - homeless parents are less likely to have functioning networks of social supports, such as family members or friends who could care for their children, than are poor parents in general. Nationally, however, only one out of ten children who is eligible for child care assistance under federal law receives any help.x
Everyone uses services. Those with the lowest incomes rely on public systems to supply medical care, job training, education, mental health treatment, child care, substance abuse treatment, transportation and many other services. Those systems are almost uniformly overburdened, and in many cases are not keeping up with new demands. These public systems require realistic funding and good policies to address new challenges.
"Rental Housing Assistance - The Worsening Crisis: A Report to Congress on Worst Case Housing Needs." U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research, March 2000.
ii In Search of Shelter: The Growing Shortage of Affordable Rental Housing. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, DC. June 1998/
iii Ibid.
iv "The State of the Nation's Housing." Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, 1999.
v "Rental Housing Assistance - the Worsening Crisis," op cit.
vi Dolbeare, Cushing, "Out of Reach: The Gap Between Housing Costs and Income of Poor People in the United States." National Low Income Housing Coalition, Washington, DC, September, 1999.
vii All statistics are from analysis by the Economic Policy Institute of Census Bureau Data. Available through the Economic Policy Institute web site at www.epinet.org.
viii "Average Incomes of Very Poor Families Fell During Early Years of Welfare Reform, Study Finds." Press Release, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, August 22, 1999. The study cited counts food stamps, housing subsidies, Earned Income Tax Credit and other such benefits as income, as well as conventional earnings.
ix Robert Anderson, National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors, Testimony before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, Committee on Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, August, 1999.
x U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Access to Child Care for Low-Income Working Families (Washington, D.C.: U.S. DHHS, October 19, 1999).
This video highlights how communities across the country are decreasing homelessness among families. Thanks to the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it’s yours to use for free. 
