. . . . In the 1970s, homelessness was not a major social issue, as there were 6.4 million low-income housing units for 7.3 million poor renters; by 1989, the stock of low-income units dropped to 5.5 million, but the number of low-income renters increased to 9.6 million. The resulting increase in homelessness to approximately 300,000, according to the Reagan administration—or 3 to 4 million as estimated by the National Coalition for the Homeless—brought dramatic attention to the nation’s most poor.  The general response by the government and nonprofits to this crisis has been to house people in temporary shelters. Douglas Timmer, Stanley Eitzen, and Kathryn Talley argue that this is the wrong approach and that what is needed is a massive infusion of money to build houses since, ultimately, the homeless problem is a housing problem.
 

Myers-Lipton, p. 263
 

(Excerpted from “Social Solutions to Poverty” © Paradigm Publishers 2006)