by Rachel Scheier : sfstandard – excerpt
We received more than 100 questions from readers about homelessness in San Francisco. One reader wanted to know about the underlying causes of homelessness.
When we see people living in tents on the streets or curled up in doorways, many of us wonder how they ended up there. Did they get fired? Are they addicted to alcohol or drugs? It’s not surprising that some people believe the fundamental causes of homelessness are drug addiction and mental illness because many of those we see on the streets seem to have such issues.
Some 20,000 individuals in San Francisco experienced homelessness at some point in 2022, according to the city’s most recent “point in time” count. More than one-fifth of those surveyed said job loss was the primary reason they were unhoused, while another 14% blamed eviction and 12% blamed drugs or alcohol…
In their book Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, University of Washington researcher Gregg Colburn and data scientist Clayton Page Aldern say “the homelessness crisis in coastal cities cannot be explained by disproportionate levels of drug use, mental illness, or poverty.”…(more)