OUP - Abstract

A New Understanding of Our Nation's Rising Homeless Rates and Low Rent Housing Vacancy Rates

Dissertation School: Columbia University

Pages: 219

Publication Date: January 1997

Availability:
Available from the HUD USER Helpdesk P.O. Box 23268 Washington, DC 20026-3268 Toll Free: 1-800-245-2691 Fax: 1-202-708-9981 Email: oup@oup.org

Access Number: 10709

Abstract:
Prior to this research, it was believed that our nation's rising low rent sector vacancy rates, rising low rent sector vacancy rates, rising rent burdens of the poor, and increasing homelessness, at least among families was not attributed to the increased difficulty in securing housing. My research provides a more in depth examination of our nation's low rent vacancy rates, and as a result suggests a different interpretation of the nation's relationship between the vacancy and homeless trends. I present revised estimates of national vacancy rates that previously were not corrected for important changes in the American Housing Survey design that directly affected vacancy rates were much less dramatic than previously believed. Low rent units did not always have statistically significantly greater vacancy rates than the high rent sector in the late eighties while homeless rates were believed to be at their highest. Meanwhile, as the low rent sector's vacancy rates rose, the total stock of low rent housing declined, causing the total number of vacancies to also decline. Also changes in the South can completely account for our nation's rise in the low rent sector's vacancy rates between 1975-1991. The South's share of the nation's low rent housing stock increased, and its low rent sector's vacancy rate also increased. Meanwhile, it is not characterized as having a relatively large homeless population. I examine the vacancy rates of the high and low rent sectors in large metropolitan areas that have greater concentrations of homelessness. From the analysis, it can be concluded that time periods and areas with higher rates of homelessness are also characterized by fewer vacancies in the low rent housing sector. I then provide an economic model that explains how various housing market factors affect the equilibrium homeless population and vacancy rates.

Back to Search Result of DDRG Dissertations