In recent years, the issue of affordable housing has been on the rise. People are not making enough money from their ordinary jobs and wages to afford the incredibly high rent and home prices in this day and age. This is simply the byproduct of urbanization—immense numbers of people moving in from rural areas—along with the increased migrant population we see in many developed countries around the world. As a result, urban areas experience an exceptionally high demand for housing with a limited supply, and prices skyrocket.
With most job opportunities centered around urban areas, how can one simply ship homeless individuals off to rural outskirts, depriving them of the opportunity to rebuild their lives? As detailed in our previous blog, this is the unfortunate reality in many countries.
How bad is the housing crisis? Well, according to the World Economic Forum, 1.6 billion people across the world lack access to adequate housing. The majority of affordable housing and homelessness programs are also heavily underfunded, with strict governmental regulations rendering it challenging to build new affordable housing. In the UK, 8.4 million people (13% of the population) live in unaffordable, volatile, or overcrowded housing. Across the Atlantic in the US, approximately 99 million people live in such conditions as well, comprising a staggering 30% of the population.
Another predicament to factor in is that of salaries. Wage growth for many workers has stagnated since 2010, while rent and house prices have continued to increase. Average rent in the UK has increased by 9.1% between November 2023 and November 2024, and in places like New York City, there has also been an average year-on-year rent increase of 3.6%. Consequently, as this trend continues, workers struggle to pay their bills triggering potential eviction from their homes, and in some cases, having these workers end up on the streets.
With rent and house prices practically impossible to pay for, many as a result are left struggling to stay afloat or left without any residence. The current trends from the World Economic Forum suggest that 3 billion people could be left without adequate housing by 2030. What can be done about this?
One possible solution to embark on is to deregulate some of the laws that currently act as barriers to building new housing. There are many height restrictions and approval delays that mean new housing projects take a remarkably long time to proceed. Deregulation and speeding up the process would incentivize greater development. Regulations also typically result in increased costs for developers, which, in turn, leads to higher house prices and rent set by the developers to make a profit. This simply makes housing more unaffordable and augments the housing crisis.
The housing crisis and lack of affordable housing are deeply ingrained in the economic issues that face countries around the world, amplifying homeless numbers. There are simply so many systematic issues that contribute to this problem and leave millions of people without control over their fate. We must take this into account: many people are left to experience homelessness because of the challenges in the system that are not dealt with. We must not jump to conclusions by allowing the stigmas to influence our perceptions; instead, we should be working to decipher these root causes and look to a better future.
Works cited:
Purton, Michael. “There’s a Global Housing Crisis. Here Are 4 Practical Solutions.” World Economic Forum, 10 June 2024, www.weforum.org/stories/2024/06/global-housing-crisis-practical-solutions/.
Martinez, Aina. “The Affordable Housing Crisis: Causes and solutions”. SDS Software, 8 October 2024, https://s-d-s.co.uk/affordable-housing-crisis-causes-solutions/
Hilber, Christian. “How Can We Make Homes More Affordable?” British Politics and Policy at LSE, 24 May 2023, blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/how-can-we-make-homes-more-affordable/.
Lambert, Lance. “The Affordability Strained Housing Market, as Told by One Chart.” ResiClub, 18 October 2024, www.resiclubanalytics.com/p/the-affordability-strained-housing-market-as-told-by-one-chart.
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