In his first pledge as the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham has promised to end long-term “rough sleeping” through increased investment in a number of homeless programs. While his commitment is welcomed, any housing activist would tell Burnham that he must focus on the root causes of homelessness – and that includes immediately reining in skyrocketing rents. Higher rents, in other words, equals more homelessness.
That fact has been made clear by a number of studies, including one by the University of California San Francisco and two by Zillow, the real estate site. The UC San Francisco report found that sky-high rents were the overriding cause of California’s major homelessness crisis, and Zillow revealed that higher rents were triggering increased homelessness in Los Angeles and other cities in the United States.
“Communities where people spend more than 32 percent of their income on rent can expect a more rapid increase in homelessness,” Zillow reported.
Dr. Margot Kushel, the lead investigator of the UC San Francisco study, told the Associated Press: “People are homeless because their rent is too high.”
Clearly, Burnham, and any other political leader around the world and in the U.S., needs to address excessive rents if they’re serious about fixing homelessness – and they can’t take just one approach. They must carry out a multi-pronged program. After working years on the front lines of California’s housing affordability and homelessness crises, Housing Is A Human Right can offer a few suggestions.
First, protect tenants through strong renter rights such as just-cause eviction and rent regulations – rent control or rent stabilization. Through these protections, tenants will get immediate relief and avoid homelessness.
Second, preserve existing moderate- and lower-income housing – don’t demolish it to make way for luxury housing that most people can’t afford. Once affordable housing has been destroyed, it’s most probably gone forever – and no political leader should ever shrink his or her affordable housing stock if that person is serious about addressing homelessness. Preserve existing affordable housing.
Lastly, quickly produce new lower-income and homeless housing through such cost-effective methods as the adaptive reuse of existing buildings and pre-fabricated housing.
When you protect renters, preserve existing affordable housing, quickly produce new low-income and homeless housing, and carry out effective programs for the unhoused, you’re carrying out a multi-pronged approach that will get results – short and long term.
Which is important.
From Eviction Lab to The Guardian, researchers and journalists have found that sky-high rents and rough sleeping, also known as homelessness, lead to higher mortality rates and more homeless deaths. Burnham and other leaders must act fast. People’s lives are on the line.
Patrick Range McDonald is a veteran investigative reporter and the award-winning advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.