Despite low unemployment and rising incomes, homelessness continues to increase – up 0.3 percent for the second straight year – and most analysts cite the lack of affordable rental properties as the prime reason.
Not surprisingly, the most expensive metro areas are seeing the greatest jumps in homelessness. Currently, nearly one quarter of the country’s homeless populations lives in either New York or Los Angeles where rents have risen 20 percent and 35 precent, respectively since 2012. In Seattle homelessness has increased by 4 percent in 2018 while rents have risen 64 percent since 2012.
Leave a Reply