There is no one cause of homelessness. Contributing factors include:
Systemic factors such as:
- a decline in the availability of low cost housing;
- a profound economic transformation that has eliminated manufacturing jobs and replaced them with low-wage service sector jobs;
- the failure to develop an adequate community health system in the aftermath of deinstitutionalization for persons with mental health difficulties;
- a national substance abuse epidemic;
- persistent and intergenerational poverty; and
- racial inequalities
Individual vulnerabilities, often in combination with:
- domestic violence;
- mental illness;
- alcohol and/or drug abuse;
- low levels of education;
- poor or no work history experience; and
- childhood abuse and time in foster care
Erosion of the social safety net:
- welfare reform
- more limited eligibility for public benefits
- oversubscribed and underfunded supportive services
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