How Affordable Housing Reduces Housing Instability
Housing options for people with diverse income levels prevents and reduces housing instability.
While some might believe that being unhoused is a consequence of individual shortcomings, the truth is that homelessness is a housing issue. A lack of housing affordability is the greatest cause of housing instability because it limits housing options for low-income people. When there is more access to affordable housing, it influences stability and decreases the possibility that lower income people would become unhoused.
While some might believe that being unhoused is a consequence of individual shortcomings, the truth is that homelessness is a housing issue. A lack of housing affordability is the greatest cause of housing instability because it limits housing options for low-income people. When there is more access to affordable housing, it influences stability and decreases the possibility that lower income people would become unhoused.
- Supportive housing is the most successful intervention yet developed for ending homelessness among the most vulnerable populations (7).
- Unaffordable housing is the biggest contributor to being unhoused (10). Access to decent housing for people with various income levels provides critical stability for families (5), which reduces evictions (2) and the overall risk that vulnerable families will become unhoused (5).
- Communities wind up paying for what the government spends on shelters, emergency room visits, and jail time for unhoused people through taxation (10).
