When Rents Rise, So Does Homelessness

According to a Pew Charitable Trusts study, rising rental prices are directly linked to an increase in homelessness in the United States. The analysts write that while homelessness often has several contributing factors - such as substance use disorder, mental health, weather, the strength of the social safety net, poverty, or economic conditions - none are as impactful as the role of high housing costs.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s homelessness data and Apartment List rent data from 2017 and 2022 shows that of the six metro areas where homelessness increased the most, rents had also risen faster than the national average. These were Sacramento, Fresno, Raleigh, Phoenix, Austin and Tucson. Meanwhile, four areas that saw declines in homelessness also saw below-average increases in their median rents.

The writers of the report explain: “There are still places in the U.S. where levels of homelessness are low, either because those places have low-cost housing readily available—such as Mississippi, where homelessness is 10 times lower than California—or because they have rapidly added housing and made a concerted effort to reduce the ranks of residents without homes. In Houston, the rate of homelessness is 19 times lower than it is in San Francisco, even though Houston’s population has grown more than San Francisco’s in the past decade. Looking at these markets helps to show how population growth generally does not explain growth in homelessness, except in instances where there is not a sufficient increase in the housing supply.”