WHY ARE OUR FAMILIES HOMELESS?
Many people assume that families are homeless because of mental illness, substance abuse, or criminal behavior. But the research shows that homeless families are no different from housed poor families in the incidence of such problems. The primary reason so many families are homeless in the Commonwealth today is poverty.
Looking at the real costs of raising a family without subsidy in the Commonwealth shows just how vulnerable our poorest families are. Research by the Massachusetts Family Economic Self-Sufficiency project (MassFESS) has found that, in Boston, a woman with one pre-school and one school-age child, would need to earn more than $51,000 to pay market rate for an apartment, child care, health care and other expenses. The average income of a woman living on welfare is $17,000.
Statewide, approximately one quarter of our families do not earn enough to pay market rate rent, childcare, health care and the other costs of raising a family. The numbers do not work for these families. They are all families at risk of homelessness - so close that a child's medical emergency, a condo conversion, a fire could put them on the street. Those who don't have a safety net of close family, friends, or social service supports are particularly vulnerable.
How did this Happen?
Beginning in the early 1980s, several trends led to a national housing crisis. For Massachusetts's families, these included:
- Widespread conversion of rental units to condominiums during the 1980s and 1990s.
- Declining federal support for subsidized housing. In the late, 1970s, the federal government created 275,000 new affordable housing units annually. By 1989, that figure decreased to 21,800. Current production is 77,000 units.
- Stagnation in wages for working poor families. " Despite the record expansion of the 1990s, in real terms, the typical Massachusetts household makes less money today than it did in 1989…in our region, the income gains in the 1990s went disproportionately to the most affluent households, and the typical household lost ground.“ Source: "the Story of Household Incomes in the 1990s," Mass INC.
- Battered women began to speak out - and to leave home. In a survey of women in shelter conducted in 1997, more than half said that domestic violence was a cause of their homelessness. Many abused women said they would have left their batterer much earlier if affordable housing had been available.
When the problem of family homelessness first emerged in the 1980s, the Commonwealth teamed up to address it. In a public private partnership, the Fund for the Homeless raised money to build new shelters. Project based housing subsidies helped move over 6,000 families to permanent housing between 1986 and 1990. And community development corporations stepped up to develop rental housing with Community Reinvestment Act loans from local banks. The state provided emergency assistance for families that helped with back rent and other costs. The result was a system that dramatically reduced the number of homeless families by focusing on prevention, short-term shelter, and permanent solutions.
By the 90s, that system began to erode. A state budget crisis led to drastic funding cuts for prevention. As the economy recovered, housing prices began to rise precipitously. And in 1996, welfare reform began.
A two year-time limit for aid, a "work first" requirement that forced parents to accept jobs before they complete education and training programs, and other policies drive a system that is focused on reducing welfare rolls rather than promoting family economic independence.
As this timeline shows, budget cuts and policy decisions directly affect the population of homeless shelters.
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