More than 650,000 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States on one night in 2023. Those were the results of the 2023 Point-in-Time Count, an annual count of individuals experiencing both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The results showed an increase from the year prior, as more than 70,000 more individuals were counted as compared with 2022. Additionally, “The 2023 Point-In-Time (PIT) count is the highest number of people reported as experiencing homelessness on a single night since reporting began in 2007. The overall increase reflects the increases in all homeless populations. Homelessness among persons in families with children experiencing homelessness rose by 16 percent. Similarly, the rise in individuals experiencing homelessness was 11 percent,” according to the 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress.
This data is just a glimpse of the current housing crisis and also is likely an underestimate of the actual number of people experiencing homelessness—a number that does not even include those on the brink of homelessness, unable to pay for their housing or unable to pay for other necessities once housing has been covered.
Of course, today’s crisis is not the first housing crisis in the United States. “It sometimes feels like we’re on this hamster wheel. It feels like it’s never ending,” says Emily Kenney, LCSW, systems change director at Impact in Milwaukee. However, that does not change the hardship of it and the need for action to mitigate it.
For social workers, effecting change in the housing crisis requires an understanding of the systems at play and the ways in which they need to evolve to help the individual.
The Housing Crisis
There are a number of factors that impact housing and individuals’ ability to afford and maintain housing at present. “When we think about the driving forces behind the housing crisis, we think of two main things that are happening: There’s a severe shortage of housing that’s available and affordable; and there’s a widening gap between income and housing costs. Both of them are systemic failures,” says Sarah Saadian, senior vice president of public policy and field organizing at the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington, D.C.
In fact, The Pew Charitable Trusts estimate there is a shortage of between four million and seven million homes in the U.S.
“Communities across the country, not just the big cities, are dealing with massive housing shortages overall, especially for affordable housing. Additionally, this is often happening in the context of population increase within those communities. As demand increases, the supply rarely keeps pace,” says Amanda Aykanian, PhD, assistant professor of social work at the University at Buffalo in New York.
Affordable housing is housing that costs the occupant no more than 30% of their income. For those who are extremely low income, meaning their income is below the federal poverty line or below 30% of their area’s median income, there is an estimated shortage of 7.3 million affordable and available rental homes in the U.S., with a national average of only 34 available homes for every 100 extremely low-income individuals/families in need.
Even when individuals are able to attain housing, they often struggle to maintain it, as housing costs—along with other costs—move steadily higher. A significant number of households now pay at least 50% of their income toward housing costs each month. All households paying more than 30% of their income in rent or mortgage are considered cost-burdened. The number of people who fit that description continues to rise, along with housing costs.
For example, “From 2020 to today, we saw 15% increases in rent overall and 25% increases in home prices (in Montgomery County, Pa.)” says Kayleigh Silver, LSW, Montgomery County administrator for housing and community development. “About 47% of our renters are housing cost-burdened. Our eviction filings are higher than they’ve ever been.” Montgomery County is an affluent suburb outside Philadelphia, with a median household income of $107,441 in 2022. The rate of poverty in the county has increased in recent years and is estimated to be above 6%.
Nationwide, the number of cost-burdened households rose by 1.5 million between 2021 and 2022 to 42 million. That is a 4.9 million increase from 2019, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Part of the reason for this is that while incomes have marginally increased, they have not done so at the same rate as housing costs. There was a 5.3% increase overall in 2022 from 2021 on the Average Wage Index. However, that data takes into account all workers. It is no guarantee that individuals earning the lowest wages saw a 5% increase in income. Even if they did, those starting at a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour would not see a significant amount more in their take-home pay and certainly would not be earning enough to keep up with skyrocketing housing prices.
That’s not to say, cautions Kenney, that simply increasing wages will solve the problem. “Income is a part of this story. What I don’t want people to assume is we fix income and then we fix housing. There are a whole host of other issues [affecting the housing crisis].”
Shifting Perspective
Addressing the housing crisis, then, is not a simple solution. It is, in fact, a matter of allocating more resources, funding and flexibility to programs that already exist and to those that need to be developed.
“We don’t provide anywhere near the resources that are needed,” says Saadian. “Only one in four households that are eligible [for housing assistance] get any sort of help. There are solutions that work. We just don’t invest in them at the scale that’s needed.”
Saadian notes that federally funded housing programs are funded at a set amount each year—an amount determined by Congress. This is unlike other safety net programs like Social Security or Medicare and Medicaid, which are funded at whatever the cost may be.
Such a discrepancy highlights the fact that in the U.S. “housing is not a human right. Until we see housing as a right, we’re going to struggle with housing people,” says Kenney. “There’s a whole lot of moral judgment that comes with housing that is a little bit confusing to me to be honest. There’s this idea that you have to earn it. You can’t just give people something as important as housing for free. If we could all have empathy and put ourselves in those shoes, we would want housing.”
Silver agrees. “We live in times today nationally where the stigma … is at a great height, and it concerns me greatly. People experiencing [housing instability] are our neighbors. I guarantee you know someone who is facing eviction or high housing costs or having to make a sacrifice [to remain housed]. The narrative that people are coming from elsewhere or they don’t belong here, or it is driven by mental health or drug addiction concerns me greatly, because the data shows that that’s not true. I really want the narrative of that to change to one of community.”
Such a shift in perspective could potentially bring with it a better understanding of the value of housing programs and what they bring to a community. In fact, housing an individual is cheaper than that person remaining unhoused. And when a community has affordable and available housing, the community itself is better able to thrive.
“For a strong workforce to be able to survive in communities, our workers and our elderly and our students and people with disabilities need to be able to afford where they can live,” says Silver. She adds that high rates of homelessness are a strain on the system and can negatively impact the local economy.
Improving Resources
It’s not just points of view that need to change, though that’s one of many first steps. There needs to be real investment in addressing the housing crisis from government and organizations at all levels.
That’s not to say actions aren’t being taken to improve services. They are. For example, HUD recently proposed regulations that would protect tenants with a history of conviction from discrimination. The Vera Institute of Justice explains that “The proposed regulations address long-standing barriers to housing and will have a significant impact on communities throughout the country if enacted.” Specifically, the regulations would ensure that “HUD-subsidized housing providers and public housing authorities (PHAs) cannot automatically or categorically deny housing assistance to an applicant simply due to the presence of a recorded conviction, except where explicitly prohibited by federal law.”
Similarly, said housing providers would only be able to take criminal histories into account when those histories impact the health and safety of other residents or staff. The housing providers and PHAs also would have to establish a look-back period that is no longer than three years.
In addition to these recent proposed federal regulations, the National Low Income Housing Coalition has also tracked more than 300 renter protections at state and local levels. However, says Saadian, as positive as these protections and other actions are, they are insufficient. “Much more needs to be done. Communities can’t fully tackle the housing crisis unless Congress is playing a key role. It’s so large in scope that it really demands a national solution.”
If possible, that solution should not only look at homelessness but at the entirety of the housing crisis. “There is more funding for people who are literally homeless,” explains Kenney, rather than for people who are on the verge of losing their housing. “The thinking around it, at the moment, is we have to figure out who is most deserving. If you’re thinking who is most in need, it’s the people who are outside. But everyone deserves housing.”
Added to that, it’s not only about finding or creating affordable and available housing. Silver notes that for real change to occur, factors such as zoning need to be taken into account, as well as what resources and programming can help once or while housing is in place. “Housing first is not housing only. People’s needs are individualized. While affordable housing is the root of the solution to homelessness, the plant that grows out of that root for each individual person is different. Some people need move-in assistance, they’re back to work, they’re fine. Some people need housing that is safe and away from a domestic violence situation,” she says, emphasizing the importance of having programs that are flexible and able to meet people where they are.
Changes focused on the entirety of the problem could help make more housing available and affordable and help lower the number of individuals and families who enter homelessness or face eviction on a daily basis.
Aiding the Workforce
Another key factor in addressing the housing crisis is supporting the workforce—the social workers and other professionals working with the individuals and families in their communities who are struggling. Unsurprisingly, the professionals trying to tackle the housing crisis are facing numerous hurdles, not just in supporting their clients but in their own lives as well.
“In my National Homeless Services Workforce Study, we surveyed over 1,000 workers across the country. Three big things stood out. First, while nearly all were employed full time, more than half were making less than $50,000 a year in their job, and 16% were making less than $30,000,” says Aykanian.
The average rent per month in the U.S. is $1,713, according to RENTCafé, which totals $20,556 annually. That is 68% of a $30,000 salary and 41% of a $50,000 salary, putting the housing and homelessness workforce potentially well within the population of individuals cost-burdened by housing.
“Second, says Aykanian, “we found that just over one-third of the workers in our study have a personal history of homelessness. Third, when asked to identify the biggest work stressors, workers pointed primarily to systemic factors that they have little control over and the emotional impacts of the work, including feeling unable to help or do enough and experiencing burnout or compassion fatigue.” The systemic factors cited were staffing shortages, turnover, a lack of resources to do their job, low pay and unfair compensation.
Supporting professionals in their jobs, including garnering enough funding to properly compensate them, could lead to less turnover, which would lead to more experienced staff and continuity in services for individuals and families experiencing a housing crisis.
Social Work’s Role
Given the scope of what needs to be done, where do social workers best fit in? The answer is everywhere. They need to be advocating for policy change and increased funding, educating communities about the reality of the housing crisis and who is impacted, and working on the front lines with the families and individuals in need.
“I want to see more social workers in the homeless services sector. In our workforce survey less than 20% of respondents had a degree in social work. I think we as a profession need to take more seriously our role and potential in preventing and ending homelessness. Homelessness is a complex social problem that is impacted by factors at the individual, community and system levels. Social workers are trained to think about issues through this multilevel lens, which means they can be beneficial across a range of needs,” says Aykanian.
As for the social workers who are already involved, Silver and Kenney encourage them to keep going, keeping showing up and doing the work. “I went into social work and started doing clinical work in the field of mental health, and while I have love there, I was immediately drawn to the systems lens of housing and homelessness because of that hope that this is solvable. With advocacy, will and resources, we can do it,” says Silver.
“It is really hard to keep going,” adds Kenney. “But people need you to keep hope. Without you, we’re definitely not going to make progress. It feels like we’re on this hamster wheel, but we’re really not. We have shifted the way that these services are happening. We know what works and we have had success. Sometimes it is helpful to take a look at the big picture. We’re headed in the right direction.”
Sue Coyle, MSW, is a freelance writer and social worker in the Philadelphia suburbs.
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