Conference and book on Housing Policies to Reduce the Volume of Homelessness and Mentally Ill in American Cities

 Studies indicate an alarming increase in the population of homeless persons in America, with numbers exceeding emergency shelter and transitional housing spaces in cities across the nation. A recent study conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found 23 percent of all requests for emergency shelter went unmet due to lack of resources. For families, the numbers are even worse: 29 percent of emergency shelter requests from families were denied. Changes in the U.S. housing market in the last decade—caused by historically low interest rates, lax lending standards, and the boom in home sales—not only transformed the face of the market and the American economy but also greatly affected housing policies regarding the homeless. While many studies address how and why people are homeless, very little research has been advanced to determine what housing policies are most likely to reduce the volume of homelessness in American cities.

Economists Carol Caton and Dan O’Flaherty, of the Columbia University Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies, and Ingrid Gould Ellen, of the New York University Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, will organize a conference and an edited volume on homelessness and housing policy. By bringing together an interdisciplinary group of researchers, practitioners, advocates, and public officials, the team hopes to develop a research agenda for housing policy. Their goal is to have leading scholars as presenters and discussants who are non-academics but who have direct experience with issues of homelessness. Issues to be addressed in the conference and subsequent volume include: housing subsidy policies for low-income renters and their relationship to homelessness; housing and policies for the homeless with mental illnesses; institutions needed to mitigate the life risks that result in homelessness; and the relationship between local housing market regulation and housing costs and their affect on the incidence of homelessness across the country. The Columbia Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies and the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy will co-sponsor the conference.