D.C.'s Housing and Homelessness Crises Are Two Sides of the Same Coin

Although people fall into homelessness for a wide range of reasons, writes Libby Solomon, "national advocates and groups convened to end homelessness all point to one key cause of homelessness: a lack of affordable housing."

"A robust affordable housing stock," Solomon argues, "can prevent households from falling into homelessness in the first place." In fact, "[h]ousing affordability and homelessness have a direct link." According to Nan Roman, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, "the major societal change that coincided with widespread modern homelessness was a rise in the cost of housing." A 2018 Zillow study supports that conclusion, finding that "areas where people spend more than a third of their income on rent experience more rapid increases in homelessness."

In Washington, D.C., "low-income people in particular are struggling — more than half of DC’s lowest-income renters are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on rent, NLIHC [National Low Income Housing Coalition] says." At the end of August 2021, "more than 100,000 households across the region were behind on rent — about 14% of renters."

As in other parts of the country, housing construction isn't keeping up with rising demand, and rents are rising–signs that don't bode well for future housing stability for D.C. families.