America’s Affordable Housing Crisis Is Driving Its Homelessness Crisis

There’s a clear link between a lack of places to live and the number of people sleeping out of doors at night. And the solution is clear, too: Cities need to double down not just on homeless services, but on building more affordable housing, and quickly.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a plan in February to tackle the city’s homelessness crisis by opening 90 new shelters across the five boroughs. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti pledged to spend $138 million on ending homelessness in his city by the end of the 2017 fiscal year. Earlier this year, a state senator in Hawaii introduced a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe housing as a cure for homelessness, which would be classified as a medical condition. In San Francisco, often thought of as the epicenter of the nation’s homelessness crisis, Mayor Ed Lee and a coalition of private partners have pledged $100 million to have the city’s homeless population in the next five years.

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