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Annabella Schweitz

English 2010

7 December 2022

Housing Crisis: I-Search

Homelessness and lack of affordable housing is a huge issue at the moment and

the amount of affordable homes only continues to decrease. This topic is extremely

important to me because I believe that shelter is a human right and people are unable to

thrive or help themselves without it, it is also important to break down the issue and take

a look at all of the factors playing a role instead of throwing all of the blame onto the

individual, because that doesn't get us anywhere. In the current world we live in with

such a large population and developed infrastructure, shelter is a necessity.

As a current architecture student, the housing crisis is very interesting to me

because attempting to assemble a solution to the issue is a puzzle much bigger than

the building design itself, it is a combination of many different factors all working

together. As a twenty-one year old college student I recognize that many people my age

including myself are struggling to move out of their parents house, which shows that this

is also a generational issue that will impact me and my peers.

I'm aware that homelessness is caused by a variety of factors, the primary ones

being mental health issues and substance abuse. I also know that marginalized groups

are hit the hardest and the police and prison systems only make the problem worse. I

would like to know why certain groups are more affected and what we can do to help

the mental health crisis. This paper will cover all of the factors playing a role in

homelessness both small scale and large scale, we will lay it out in an organized
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manner so that we can put all of the pieces together and try to generate a solution. I

would like to know what previous attempts have been made and why they failed, or if

there have been any forgotten successful methods. My biggest question is how do we

develop a dynamic system that will stand the test of time and withstand the rapid

population growth.

I started my research process by reading articles from public news sources,

starting with an article from Bloomberg journal capturing a brief history of homlessness.

After understanding the history of homelessness, I wanted to look at modern

homelessness, who is affected and why. So I read about a study that took place in

California that took a look at homeless individuals’ stories as to how they got there. This

had me wondering why the government would provide more adequate mental care

facilities to help out with the issue. I stumbled upon a PBS news article arguing that it

isn’t the government's fault, however more so the lack of housing. I wish it were that

simple. I then read a CBS article about the steep increase in housing costs due to the

large number of home investors. Governor Cox of Utah holds a similar opinion,

regarding the huge increase in short term rentals within the state, this had me

wondering if we can do anything as citizens to stop this. Ernest Brown argues that we

are also playing a part in the crisis by not participating in zoning law votes, and how lack

of affordable purchasable property is one of the main reasons it’s become difficult for

lower class individuals to maintain wealth. I wanted to look more into previous

successful attempts. I read about housing first and how effective it was. I wondered why

we were using this system and then read about why people disagree. From this
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information I came to the conclusion that it would be best to use housing first and the

right to shelter in a hybrid. I then moved on to read a few scholarly sources, the first one

I read talked about how homelessness should be considered a public health crisis,

following with an article talking about how homelessness is both a cause and a

symptom of mental health and substance abuse issues. Considering that we want to

stop homelessness from happening the main thing we need to focus on is the cause

itself. Another article discussed the three primary ways we could cut down on

homelessness

I wanted to start looking at the issue of housing affordability from a locational

perspective. I found an article about how distance from work correlates to the cost of a

home. This led me to another one that talked about how this phenomenon is a symptom

of the competitive market. I was then curious as to how other countries handle the

situation, I soon found a source that talked about how other countries have worked

around zoning laws and cost of materials for building.

When I initially begun my research process, I looked into the history of

homelessness in the USA, I read about how it initially became a problem after the civil

war and how vagrancy laws were put in place to “stop” homelessness, but this really

just imprisoned those who appeared to have no shelter of a job, which made it even

more difficult for these individuals to receive a job or housing after getting out of prison.

The most concerning part about this was that the most effected group was black

americans who had just been freed from slavery. Knowing that black Americans are

overrepresented both in prisons and within homeless populations, this brought me to

the realization that the poverty to prison, back to poverty cycle is very much real.

Homelessness and crime are directly linked to eachother and black americans have

been dealing with this cycle since the end of slavery (Schneider 9).

The development of anti psychotic pills played a huge role in homelessness as

well. In the mid 1900s, medication to treat mental illness was becoming the next big

thing, meaning that many psychiatric hospitals were cutting down on the amount of

patients they could help. These institutions used to be shelters for those who were

struggling, with pills these people were left on the streets to fend for themselves,

probably worsening their mental state. In the late 1900’s there was quite a bit of

defunding for welfare programs which led to increased rates of homelessness. In the

modern day, homlessness disproportionately affects minority groups such as POC, the

LGBTQ community, and families. POC are at higher risk because of institutionalized

racism and mass incarceration. For the LGBTQ community, homelessness happens for

young adults and teens who have either run away from home to avoid danger, or have

gotten kicked out. Some of the main reasons for modern day homelessness are

increasing medical costs, drug epidemics, and gentrification (Schneider 9).

A study in california that took a look at homeless people and the series of events

that led to their situation. It was found that in most situations, it started off with grief,

mental and physical illness or substance abuse issues (Vredenburgh 13). Substance

abuse issues were especially prominent in elderly populations that have been

chronically homeless. Due to the severe loneliness that comes with homlessness, it is

often a coping mechanism. It is believed that it would be easier for homeless people to

get out of it if they had more strong relationships and social circles (Zhao 15).
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Some people believe that the government is not at fault for the homelessness

crisis because there simply is not enough affordable housing (Woodruff 14). This

argument is only partially true, both are to blame. Builders are constantly attempting to

slow gentrification by attempting to build affordable housing, however, building projects

cannot keep up with gentrification. By the time a project is finished, the cost of living in

that area has already become less affordable. The cost of ownable properties is

increasing at a rapid rate due to the scarcity. In February of 2022, it was reported that

there are 500 cities where the median cost of a home sits at one million dollars (Pichi 8).

Zoning decisions make a huge impact on what kind of properties get approved for

building. Ernest Brown believes that it is our responsibility to keep an eye out for these

decisions and to vote on them. Oftentimes it is only upper class folks voting on these

decisions, meaning a large number of lower income housing projects get voted down

out of fear of property value then decreasing (Arnold 3).

Today, the affordable home market only consists of rental properties, no

longer can lower class people gain work-less income through property investments,

instead they have to rent and eat away your money. According to governor Cox of Utah,

the issue has been made much worse with short term rental programs such as Airbnb

(Semerad 11). Now, not only are homes being bought out by rich people to rent out to

lower income people, but homes are being bought out by rich people to be rented out to

other rich people for a few days at a time. This means that many of the homes on the

market are empty for a majority of the year and there are less options for people who

need a place to live because long term rentals are being replaced with short term ones.

This can also add to how quickly a place can become gentrified. The more short term
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rentals there are, the more tourists there are, and the more tourists there are, the cost of

living increases as well.

Many believe that gentrification, wealth gaps, and homlessness are all symptoms

of the competitive market in which we live our everyday lives. People with money are

constantly trying to find new ways to invest by purchasing properties or starting new

businesses in certain areas they foresee as becoming “cool”. These people are usually

competing with other wealthy people in an attempt to be the first one to invest in that

area, however, the consequences don't fall onto the backs of the fellow rich people they

are competing against, instead, the working class has to suffer through rising costs of

living and potential displacement (Tache 12).

Studies out of California show how much higher the commute distance is for

lower wage workers to get to their jobs. Meaning many people who are already

struggling may be having to pay more money for gas in order to get to work. The

average commute distance for wealthier coastal counties was 14.4 miles, while the

average commute distance for lower income inland counties was 26.1 miles

(Blumenburg 4). For people living in a lower income bracket, there are more resources

expected from them than there are for higher income people. Food, gas, and rent will

drain their whole entire paycheck which doesn't allow for any money to be saved, so

when disaster takes place it puts them at high risk of losing their home.

Homelessness is heavily linked to public health crises and natural disasters.

Most importantly, lower income neighborhoods are not provided as strong of resources

as higher income neighborhoods. This means that when a natural disaster hits, their
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main methods of transportation or shelter are more likely to be compromised, leading

them into a downward spiral made worse without insurance (Allegrante 1).

In 2005, Utah implemented the housing first act, the idea was to provide the

chronically homeless population a home rather than just a shelter. It would cost either

30% of their income or 50$ a month (whichever was more money). It was decided that

there will be no rules regarding who they help, meaning they cannot exclude people

with addictions. Treatment for addiction and mental issues would be provided after the

individual was given a stable place to live. After 10 years with this system in place, the

rates of chronic homelessness in Utah had dropped by 91%. Lloyd Pendleton used to

disagree with the idea entirely, until it was brought to his attention that more money is

spent on jail time and medical bills for these chronically homeless individuals, than is

spent to house them. When a person is living on the street for a long amount of time,

medical issues and jail time is estimated to cost 30,000-50,000 dollars a year per

person (Scruggs 10). The housing first act is believed to be the most effective strategy

for keeping people off the streets in comparison to homeless shelters which tend to only

be temporary solutions. However, many people have a problem with housing first

because they believe that it doesn't help with large scale homelessness, it only works at

an individual level and will take a long time to make any meaningful change. The

housing first act stopped in 2016, by 2018, the homlessness rate had doubled.

With all of this research on the issue, I now have a much more solid

understanding of the way things work and how each system connects to one another.

Including my everyday decisions and how that can make an impact, I am now inspired
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to get involved with more local votes. Some of the best things we can do to prevent

homelessness is to get involved with building decisions and pay attention to healthcare

decisions. I believe that in whatever field you go into, you can make a change because

they all play a part. I believe that these findings will help me out as an architecture

student to further understand the effects of new developments on homelessness.

I believe that if everybody had an understanding of the causes of homlessness

and the long term effects, we could decrease the rates drastically. This would mean

everyone would be offered equal opportunity and financial mobility as well as improve

the wellbeing of our cities overall. In a lot of cities, the homeless population is

considered an eyesore, so they will do everything to keep them out other than helping

them find an actual home. If instead of filling cities with anti-homeless architecture, we

used those funds to make designated spaces for the homeless, I believe there would be

less substance abuse issues than we are seeing today.

Understanding the issue more could also benefit homeless populations because

if more people could understand and empathize with homeless people, there would be

far less social isolation and more of an ability for them to get off of the streets. I can

imagine that the social isolation and stigma is one of the most difficult parts about the

homeless experience and likely is the main cause of the substance abuse rates which

worsen the issue.

Works cited

Allegrante, John P., and David A. Sleet. "Investing in public health infrastructure to

address the complexities of homelessness."

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18.16 (2021): 8887.

(Link)

Anacker, Katrin B. "Introduction: Housing affordability and affordable housing."

International Journal of Housing Policy 19.1 (2019): 1-16.

(Link)

Arnold Chris, Benincasa Robert, Ganun Jaqueline, Chu Haidee. “There’s a massive

housing shortage across the U.S. Here’s how bad it is where you live.”

NPR, 14 July 2022,

(Link)

Blumenberg, Evelyn, and Madeline Wander. "Housing affordability and commute

distance."

Urban Geography (2022): 1-20.

(Link)

Eide Stephen. “Housing First and Homelessness: The Rhetoric and Reality.”

Manhattan Institute, 21 April 2020,

(Link)

Mcevers, Kelly. “Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness by 91 Percent; Here’s How.”

NPR, 10 December 2015,

(Link)

Nourazari, Sara, Kristina Lovato, and Suzie S. Weng. "Making the case for proactive

strategies to alleviate homelessness: A systems approach."

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18.2 (2021): 526.

(Link)
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Pichi, Aimee. “For most Americans, owning a home is now a distant dream.”

CBS, 22 February 2022,

(Link)

Schneider, Benjamin. “CityLab University: Understanding Homelessness in America.”

Bloomberg, 6 July 2020,

(Link)

Scruggs, Gregory. “Once a national model, Utah struggles with homelessness.”

Reuters, 10 January 2019,

(Link)

Semerad, Tony. “Gov. Cox points to two problems in Utah’s housing crisis: Airbnb and

Vrbo.”

The Salt Lake Tribune, 25 May 2022,

(Link)

Tache, Joe. "Understanding and fighting gentrification: A revolutionary orientation."

Economics 1 (2022): 1-820.

(Link)

Vredenburgh, Alexandra N., et al. "A Systems Approach to Addressing the Intersection

of Mental Health Disability, Homelessness, and the Criminal Justice System."

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. Vol. 65.

No. 1. Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, 2021.

(Link)

Woodruff Judy and Cuevas Karina. “What’s behind the rising homelessness in

America?”
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PBS, 28 December 2021,

(Link)

Zhao, Emo. "The key factors contributing to the persistence of homelessness."

International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology (2022): 1-5.

(Link)