How Does Homelessness Affect The Economy

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After the great depression and the crash of 2008, the number of homeless people has risen. Luckily, during recent times, the rate of homelessness has decreased. However, the economy is still deeply affected by homelessness through housing and sheltering projects and medical issues. These costs a lot of money and negatively affects the economy.

Homelessness has existed since the beginning of civilization, usually because a lot of people at the time are too poor to buy a house. As time goes on, the rate of homelessness rises as the population rises. Homelessness then was mostly caused by a family’s history of being homeless, drug abuse, mental disorders, and tyrannical leaders forcing his people into poverty. In modern times, several organizations are now trying to end homelessness by building cheaper housing projects more affordable to the poor and homeless shelters; these projects usually cost a fair amount of money. …show more content…

Those homeless shelters who are supposed to protect the homeless are unnecessary and costly. PBS SoCal states that a homeless shelter costs “on average, $1800 a month for a one-bedroom apartment.” (PBS SoCal Newshour) Most homeless people do not even have $1800 to begin with, making homeless housing projects a waste of money. Because the homeless could not afford the housing projects or the shelters, they often resort to cheaper options like temporary hotel or motel stays. Motel stays however, still affects the economy because according to the book Invisible Nation by Richard Schwind, “The motel stays are costing the state about $58 million annually.” (Schwind 85) So either way, homelessness still affects the economy in a negative way because the homeless cannot afford to live in shelters and homeless housing projects so they stay in motels. This makes the housing projects and shelters a waste of money and it also drains money from