Homelessness Rises Faster Where Rent Exceeds a Third of Income

• Communities where people spend more than 32 percent of their income on rent can expect a more rapid increase in homelessness.
• Income growth has not kept pace with rents, leading to an affordability crunch with cascading effects that, for people on the bottom economic rung, increases the risk of homelessness.
• The areas that are most vulnerable to rising rents, unaffordability and poverty hold 15 percent of the U.S. population – and 47 percent of people experiencing homelessness.

Communities where people spend more than 32 percent of their income on rent can expect a more rapid increase in homelessness, according to new Zillow-sponsored research on the size and root causes of the nation’s homelessness challenge. The research also estimates that the scale of homelessness nationwide has been undercounted by roughly 115,000 people, or 20 percent.

Read the article here. Read the research paper submitted to the Annals of Applied Statistics here.