End Homelessness by Focusing Beyond Housing.

Why Homelessness is Not Just a Housing Issue

Homelessness affects cities across the country, but it’s not just a local issue, though media cover it that way. Nor is homelessness mainly about housing; rather, it’s largely about untreated mental illness and drug addiction. Consistently misdiagnosed, homelessness is being wrongly addressed. And the policies that give rise to homelessness largely come from Washington, D.C., not localities. A bill called “Housing PLUS” has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., with 22 sponsors, to start to rectify these policies.

Homelessness is a national crisis that is often misunderstood. While the media tends to cover it as a local issue, the reality is that it is largely caused by untreated mental illness and drug addiction. Unfortunately, these underlying issues are consistently misdiagnosed, and as a result, homelessness is being wrongly addressed. The policies that give rise to homelessness largely come from Washington, D.C., not localities. However, there is hope. A bill called “Housing PLUS” has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., with 22 sponsors, to start to rectify these policies.

The National Mental Illness Crisis

A national mental illness crisis has been building since the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill began in the 1960s. Drug addictions have also increased, and most surveys show that the “homeless” are often both mentally ill and addicted. Cases like the recent death of subway disrupter Jordan Neely in New York City underscore the frightening dangers of untreated psychotic behavior. Yet the Biden administration, Congress, and many regional officials have persisted in treating homelessness as almost entirely a housing issue.

• Untreated mental illness and drug addiction are the main causes of homelessness
• The policies that give rise to homelessness largely come from Washington, D.C.
• A bill called “Housing PLUS” has been introduced in Congress to rectify these policies

Federal Efforts Failing

Despite the severity of the issue, federal efforts to address homelessness have largely failed. The big bucks for homeless programs come from the budgets of the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services, and from the National Institute of Mental Health. However, there is relatively little interest in these programs, let alone congressional scrutiny.

HUD emphasizes housing vouchers as a cure-all, ignoring other strategies. Success is measured by how many housing vouchers are distributed, not by how many homeless people progress to greater independence. The “housing first” policy began under President Barack Obama, when it was predicted the policy could end homelessness by 2023

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