Homelessness in California is caused by a mix of high cost of housing and poverty. Poverty or insufficient wages or salaries for California’s living cost. Monthly median household income is $960 for some homeless people in the six months prior to them becoming homeless.
In other words, cost of living had become unsustainable before they lost housing. Apart from poor income, some homeless people are disconnected from the job market all together.
In this connection, Kushel said, “The primary problem for homelessness is economics… this toxic combination of deep poverty and high housing costs. We’re a state, like every state in this country, that has a lot of very poor people, and we just don’t have the housing for them.”
It is a well-known fact that housing in California is extremely expensive and there are relatively few units of housing available to those with low incomes, which makes rents too high.
The state is not cavalier on this, as it’s suing a number of wealthier cities for thwarting the construction of affordable housing within their borders.
“We’ve got communities in this state that are refusing to build low-income housing,” Jason Elliott, the governor’s adviser, told CNN. “Because they say it’s all just rapists and child molesters…”
Kushel believes there needs to be more subsidized housing specifically provided for people with extremely low incomes.
Further, substance abuse is also contributory to California’s homelessness. 65% of the homeless respondents of the BHHI’s study reported having had a period in their life in which they regularly used illicit drugs, and 62% reported having had a period in their life with heavy drinking.
In relation to this, Elliott argued against renting homes for the homeless, on the grounds that some of them have mental health issues. But Kushel questioned if mental health problems led to homelessness, or the other way round.
Other causes of homelessness in the Gold State include poor credit history, discrimination, health challenges or prior evictions, wildfires and Covid-19.
