Making room : the economics of homelessness

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Making room : the economics of homelessness

Brendan O'Flaherty

Harvard University Press, 1996

  • : pbk.

Available at  / 33 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-341) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780674543423

Description

Mentally ill people turned out of institutions, crack-cocaine use on the rise, more poverty, public housing a shambles: as attempts to explain homelessness multiply so do the homeless - and we still don't know why. This is a story about markets, not about the bad habits or pathology of individuals. One perplexing fact is that, though homelessness in the past occurred during economic depressions, the current wave started in the 1980s, a time of relative prosperity. As Brendan O'Flaherty points out, this trend has been accompanied by others just as unexpected: rising rents for poor people and continued housing abandonment. These are among the many facts that O'Flaherty collected and analyzed in order to account for the new homelessness. Focused on six cities (New York, Newark, Chacago, Toronto, London and Hamburg), his studies also document the differing rates of homelessness in North America and Europe, and from one city to the next, as well as changes in the composition of homeless populations. O'Flaherty shows that the conflicting observations begin to make sense when we see the new homelessness as a response to change in the housing market, linked to a widening gap in the incomes of rich and poor. The resulting shrinkage in the size of the middle class has meant fewer hand-me-downs for the poor and higher rents for the low-quality housing that is available.

Table of Contents

  • What is homelessness?
  • why is it bad?
  • homeless histories
  • daytime streetpeople
  • how to think about housing markets
  • income distribution
  • interest rates and operating costs
  • cross-section studies
  • government and housing
  • income maintenance
  • mental health
  • substance abuse
  • criminal justice
  • what we should do.
Volume

: pbk. ISBN 9780674543430

Description

Mentally ill people turned out of institutions, crack-cocaine use on the rise, more poverty, public housing a shambles: as attempts to explain homelessness multiply so do the homeless-and we still don't know why. The first full-scale economic analysis of homelessness, Making Room provides answers quite unlike those offered so far by sociologists and pundits. It is a story about markets, not about the bad habits or pathology of individuals. One perplexing fact is that, though homelessness in the past occurred during economic depressions, the current wave started in the 1980s, a time of relative prosperity. As Brendan O'Flaherty points out, this trend has been accompanied by others just as unexpected: rising rents for poor people and continued housing abandonment. These are among the many disconcerting facts that O'Flaherty collected and analyzed in order to account for the new homelessness. Focused on six cities (New York, Newark, Chicago, Toronto, London, and Hamburg), his studies also document the differing rates of homelessness in North America and Europe, and from one city to the next, as well as interesting changes in the composition of homeless populations. For the first time, too, a scholarly observer makes a useful distinction between the homeless people we encounter on the streets every day and those "officially" counted as homeless. O'Flaherty shows that the conflicting observations begin to make sense when we see the new homelessness as a response to changes in the housing market, linked to a widening gap in the incomes of rich and poor. The resulting shrinkage in the size of the middle class has meant fewer hand-me-downs for the poor and higher rents for the low-quality housing that is available. O'Flaherty's tightly argued theory, along with the wealth of new data he introduces, will put the study of homelessness on an entirely new plane. No future student or policymaker will be able to ignore the economic factors presented so convincingly in this plainspoken book.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction What Is Homelessness? Why Is It Bad? Homeless Histories Daytime Streetpeople How to Think about Housing Markets Income Distribution Interest Rates and Operating Costs Cross-Section Studies Government and Housing Income Maintenance Mental Health Substance Abuse Criminal Justice What We Should Do Appendix: Homeless Studies Notes References Index

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