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Homelessness

Addressing homelessness begins with housing

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Homelessness is fundamentally a housing issue, not just addiction or mental health

Many individuals experiencing homelessness also face significant mental health challenges or struggle with substance use disorders, including alcohol or drug dependency. This is particularly evident among the chronically homeless population, whom the general public is most likely to encounter in daily life—such as those visibly distressed or living in encampments on city streets. However, homelessness takes many forms, and not all who experience it are as visible. For instance, a single mother seeking shelter in her car at a Walmart parking lot may go unnoticed, despite facing the same hardships.

This connection, while genuine, often leads people to mistakenly believe that addiction and mental health issues are the primary causes of homelessness.

The treatment-focused approach to homelessness presents a significant issue—it often leads to paralysis and inaction when it comes to practical housing solutions, which are within the control of everyday people. At the same time, it allows individuals to feel generous for supporting increased investments in treatment services while overlooking the urgent need for more housing.

The reality is, there is no quick fix for mental health and addiction. While treatment programs and recovery services are valuable, they are far from perfect. Even individuals with financial stability and access to top-tier care struggle with these challenges. And no matter how much is spent on treatment, it remains incredibly difficult to help people achieve stability when they lack a safe and reliable place to live.

But this misunderstanding goes even deeper. Imagine bringing three cookies to a group of four children and telling them to compete for who gets one. The smallest child will likely lose out. But to conclude that their small size is the reason they didn’t get a cookie would be absurd. The real issue? There weren’t enough cookies to begin with.

The same logic applies to homelessness. It’s not primarily about addiction or mental health—it’s about housing.

Where people experiencing homelessness are located

The clearest way to challenge the mental health perspective on homelessness is to examine where homelessness rates are the highest.

 Dianne Feinstein, admitting that homelessness is one area where California needs to do better, says that “the root causes of homelessness vary & include mental illness, drug addiction & poverty.” Greg Abbott, addressing Austin’s homelessness issue, stated that the city should focus on providing mental health support, addiction treatment, and job training programs.

Let’s take a moment to consider this. Why is homelessness a major issue in Austin but not in other Texas cities? Does Austin somehow lack the skills or resources available elsewhere in the state? Similarly, looking at California—a wealthy state—why does it have such a high rate of homelessness? Does warm weather somehow lead to more mental health issues?

Now, consider the states with the lowest rates of homelessness, Alabama and Mississippi—are they global leaders in addiction treatment? That seems unlikely.

The reality is simple: California has more homelessness than Texas because it’s more expensive to live there. And Austin has higher homelessness rates than other Texas cities because its housing costs are significantly higher.

The top five states with the highest rates of homelessness are New York, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. If D.C. were a state, it would rank number one—not because of mental health or addiction rates, but because these places are expensive. D.C. is particularly challenging because it lacks a low-cost rural fringe where people can find more affordable housing.

Of course, providing mental health and substance abuse treatment is important, but that need exists everywhere, including in states with low homelessness rates. For example, according to the CDC, the state with the highest drug overdose deaths is West Virginia, and Wyoming has the highest suicide rate. While these states have unhoused individuals, they do not have particularly high homelessness rates—because their housing remains more affordable.

These states need mental health and addiction support because people are dying.

Meanwhile, the homeless need homes.

Cause-and-effect reversal

Even this basic correlation likely overestimates the link between addiction, mental health issues, and homelessness. Lacking stable housing can actually trigger or worsen mental health struggles and substance use disorders. Additionally, homelessness creates significant barriers to accessing and maintaining treatment.

This is why the “Housing First” approach—originally pioneered in Utah and later championed by the Bush and Obama administrations—proved to be an effective strategy for addressing homelessness.

The core idea is simple: while many homeless individuals face multiple challenges, the priority should be providing stable housing first, rather than trying to resolve all their issues beforehand. Simply securing a home reduces public costs in areas like law enforcement and emergency medical services. Once housed, individuals are in a far better position to take meaningful steps toward employment, medical treatment, and stability. Having a permanent address, a place to store belongings, and access to basic hygiene creates the foundation for long-term recovery.

Optimistic studies suggest that this approach can even save money by offsetting public expenses. However, more recent analyses present mixed findings on the overall cost-benefit ratio, so it’s important to remain measured in our claims.

That said, treating addiction effectively is complex. Even the wealthy and privileged struggle with substance use disorders, despite having access to the best treatment. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t invest in recovery services, but rather that we should have realistic expectations about their success rates. Addiction is difficult to treat, and in some cases, there is no clear solution.

By contrast, homelessness has a clear solution: housing. While I personally may not know how to build a house, as a society, we have mastered the ability to construct homes—we just need the will to ensure people have access to them. After all, you never meet a rich homeless person.

Housing solutions are simple if there’s a will to implement them.

Instead of playing the role of a bleeding heart calling for the city to increase funding for drug treatment, what Governor Newsom really needs to do is introduce Los Angeles to a fundamental concept—the free market. Over the past 30 years, the demand for housing in L.A. has skyrocketed. While construction has also increased, regulatory barriers continue to severely limit new housing development.

Of course, Los Angeles is not the only American city facing this issue, but it stands out as a place where a politically straightforward solution exists. Leveraging Newsom’s influence and political capital, the California state government could take bold action by preempting restrictive local land-use regulations, ensuring that cities allow more housing construction to meet the growing demand.

While no single piece of legislation can fully resolve the state’s housing crisis, there is now clear momentum behind a pro-housing coalition in the California legislature. Over the past several legislative sessions, we’ve consistently seen pro-housing policies gain traction, which is exactly the kind of sustained effort needed to drive meaningful change.

Homelessness is driven by a shortage of housing. Those most affected by this scarcity often face additional challenges, such as mental health issues or substance use disorders. However, in a world where housing is abundant, these struggles wouldn’t necessarily lead to widespread homelessness. On the other hand, when there aren’t enough homes available, no amount of mental health services can solve the fundamental issue that some people simply have nowhere to live.