High Cost of Housing Driving Up Homelessness, Study Finds

The high value of California real estate is a driver of the state's homeless crisis, a new study finds. "UCLA found that higher median rent and home prices are strongly correlated with more people living on the streets or in shelters. The research backs other studies that have found a similar relationship," Andrew Khouri reports for the Los Angeles Times. The researchers say that increasing housing affordability and availability would have an immediate impact on the number of homeless in California and around the country.

"In the study, Yu compared homeless rates and housing costs in all 50 states, plus Washington D.C. The percentage of homeless individuals, compared with total population, was highest in the nation’s capital, followed by Hawaii, New York and California," Khouri reports. Other factors that effected how many people were in shelters included whether or not incomes had risen. "The report also found that states with higher incomes, denser neighborhoods and lots of home building tend to have lower rates of homelessness," Khouri writes.