No Room at the Inn: Housing Policy and the Homeless
Publication Title
Washington University Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law
Abstract
My argument can be advanced through a syllogism that I hope to prove in succeeding sections:
1. Homelessness is primarily caused not by personal deficiencies, but by structural problems in metropolitan housing markets.
2. As a housing market problem, it is primarily a matter of inadequate supply, not inadequate economic demand.
3. A major cause of the inadequate supply of low income rental housing in large metropolitan areas with expanding service economies is the unintended effects of government policies.
4. Q.E.D.: to solve the problem of homelessness, it is not enough simply to spend more money on shelters; instead, housing policies, at all levels of government, must be redirected.
Recommended Citation
Todd Swanstrom,
No Room at the Inn: Housing Policy and the Homeless,
35 Wash. U. J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 081
(1989)
Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_urbanlaw/vol35/iss1/4