America Didn't Always Have This Problem
How a 55-year housing shift created modern homelessness
Until the early 1980s, "homelessness" was barely in the American vocabulary at all.
Then: 1970
+300,000
surplus of affordable homes
More low-cost units than the families who needed them.
~1 in 4
renters were cost-burdened
Homelessness existed, but it was episodic. It rose and fell with the economy.
What changed: 1973 to 1983
Four policy shifts over a decade dismantled the supply of low-cost housing:
1
Federal housing moratorium (1973)
Nixon froze federal housing programs for ~18 months, halting public housing construction.
2
Deinstitutionalization without follow-through
States released psychiatric patients, but the promised community mental-health system was never funded.
3
Loss of SRO housing
Cities demolished or converted single-room-occupancy units, the cheapest homes for poor single adults.
4
HUD budget cut by more than half
Federal budget authority for subsidized housing peaked at about $82B in 1978 (in constant dollars), and Congress cut it by more than half in the early 1980s.
The result: the U.S. homeless population grew from the first federal estimate of
250,000 to 350,000 (HUD, 1984) to an estimated 500,000–600,000 by the late 1980s.
Now: 2024
7.2M
shortfall of rental homes affordable to the lowest-income renters
35 / 100
affordable homes available for every 100 extremely low-income renters
770,000+
people homeless on a single night, a record 18% jump in one year
The swing, in one line
+300K
1970 surplus
▶ −7.2M
2024 deficit
A swing of about 7.5 million affordable units, against a growing population.
Policy opened this gap over 50 years.
Policy can close it, too, which is why it can't be solved by police and jails alone.
Will YOU step up?
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