Public policy, perverse incentives, and the homeless problem

Is homelessness a housing problem per se? In this paper we employ a HUD study from 1984 and Census data from 1990 within the context of simultaneous empirical models to examine this and other issues relating to homelessness in the United States. Our central conclusion is that homelessness does not appear to be a national housing problem as such and that, given untoward incentives among actual and potential homeless populations, policies addressing homelessness should be directed at other instruments of change (such as mental health funding and expenditures to treat substance abuse).