It’s not unusual to see homeless people drifting outside of businesses, lingering near public transportation, sleeping under bridges, or camping in city parks.
Often, we look away.
But sometimes we pause and consider what in fact happened. What personal setbacks or tragic circumstances caused this?
The answers are important because the causes people assign directly impact their support for government solutions.
According to a 2023 report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of people living on the streets or in shelters on a single night in January was more than 650,000, a 12% increase from 2022. The count is the highest recorded since the inception of the annual report in 2007. It also marked the sixth consecutive year of growth.
Homelessness also rose in 41 states. States with the highest homeless population per 10,000 residents were New York (52), Vermont (51), Oregon (48), and California (46).
In Kansas, the homeless population was 2,636, or a rate of 9 per 10,000 residents. It’s the fifth year in a row Kansas’s homeless rate increased, and the largest total number since 2014.
Scholars and homeless advocates typically identify structural or systemic factors as root causes. Persistent system level challenges like the absence of affordable housing, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, and the grind of poverty are frequently cited.
In addition, individual causes are mentioned — such as lack of personal responsibility, poor finance skills, mental illness, and substance abuse.
Recent polling shows most Americans recognize homelessness as a very serious problem. And the public names both systemic and individual causes.
However, Democrats prefer systemic causes and Republicans individual ones.
Democrats, for example, are more likely than Republicans to identify lack of affordable housing and poverty. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to name drugs and alcohol addiction and personal responsibility.
Consequently Democrats strongly support government programs that build housing for the chronically homeless, boosting funding for subsidized housing, and allocating more resources to social services.
Republicans prioritize funding for people with addictions and for veterans. They also support incentivizing developers to build low income housing, architecture that prevents homeless from sleeping or camping in public and banning homeless encampments.
Though the parties may never agree on the causes of homelessness, the unfolding humanitarian and administrative crisis at the U.S. Mexico border threatens to ensnare homelessness in the immense tangle of immigration politics.
