The Excluded Americans: Homelessness and Housing Policies

by William Tucker

Tucker examines how government housing policies actually contribute to homelessness.

Genres: Economics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1990

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Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 40-year old book brimming over with graphs, tables, and frightening words like “P-factor” and “regressive analysis”. William Tucker opens by reviewing factors that homelessness is commonly attributed to (poverty, joblessness, etc) and then looking for those that are most clearly and consistently tied to it. Although the book is extremely dated at this point as far as the data it employs, there are nonetheless some interesting lessons to be gleaned. Although it was common to attribute rising homelessness to the Reagan administration reducing housing assistance authorizations, Tucker points out that there is a difference between authorizations (which can take years to actually be used) and expenditures. While Reagan did dramatically reduce future authorizations, the actual outlays of funds for housing assistance increased during his administration. Tucker delves into the economics of the housing market, pointing out that historically, lower income citizens have always found housing in older buildings but the available stock of that has been greatly reduced by ‘urban renewal’, which destroyed wide swathes of housing stock which were insufficiently replaced — echoes of something that happened in the early Progressive movement, when residential hotels were attacked and closed on various grounds, ranging from the usual ‘Ew, poor people‘ to ‘Harrumph, harrumph, middle class people who live in hotels aren’t growing in responsibility the way real homeowners do’. The author is very critical of rent control, which — while sounding like a way to maintain affordable prices — privileges current owners and squelches new investment. Unfortunately, despite how dated the book’s data is, the core problems are still the same: despite issues with homelessness on the west coast, for instance, city leaders are still resisting permitting ADUs, microhomes, etc.