Rural homelessness increased over the past two years; addressing the causes takes regional understanding

An emergency tent shelter in Arcata, a town in Northern California, helped unsheltered people get medical and other services early in the pandemic. (Photo from Arcata House Partnership via The Daily Yonder)

Inflation, transportation and affordable housing are troublesome for many Americans right now, and these stresses have a deeper impact on rural residents. "The number of people overall experiencing homelessness in the U.S. rose by less than 1% from 2020 to 2022," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. "But those in rural continuums of care, local planning bodies responsible for coordinating the full range of homelessness services in a geographic area, which may cover a city, county, metropolitan area, or an entire state, saw an increase of nearly 6%, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. . . . Causes of the increase include housing stock shortage, lower wages, and lack of public transit."

Reasons for rural homelessness are regional. “Every community is different. The housing markets are different, the access to health care and behavioral-health services are different. Wages as compared to housing are different," Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, told Eaton. "So it’s likely that if you go to one rural part of the country, there might be one story to tell about the loss of economic opportunity and jobs to pay a livable wage. In another area, maybe there’s a dramatic increase in the cost of housing."

Because rural homelessness is multifaceted, it requires different safety nets. Eaton writes, "Steve Berg, chief policy officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said rural homelessness is distinct from homelessness in other regions, and it’s imperative to have systems in place to respond to those unique needs." Berg told Eaton, "For example, outreach providers often have to canvas much larger geographic territories, and people will sometimes live in more remote areas where it is more difficult to identify and serve them . . . . It’s also important to know that wages tend to be lower in rural areas and the total inventory of housing also tends to be limited. Even in a region with lower rental prices, this creates enormous strain on people’s abilities to stay in their homes.”

Eaton reports, "Olivet also said transportation barriers can also be a factor in rural areas. He said he’s worked in areas like western Massachusetts or rural Pennsylvania, places that people don’t always think of when they think of vast rural areas like Appalachia or in the West." Olivet told Eaton, "But even in those kind of smaller geographies in the northeast, a transportation barrier of 10 miles, 20 miles to get from a place that’s affordable to live to a job that pays a living wage, if you don’t have a vehicle, there’s just not the public transportation infrastructure, or any way to get there. And so even a 10 or 20 mile distance can be a huge barrier. That could mean the difference between a job and no job for somebody.”