One of the main causes of homelessness is lack of affordable housing.

Homelessness is complicated. It intersects with myriad issues—poverty, gender, sexuality, race, substance abuse, and domestic violence, just to name a few. However, one of the leading causes of homelessness is fairly straightforward: a lack of affordable housing.¹³

In New York, one of the most expensive housing cities on earth, rents have nearly doubled¹⁴ over the last decade ¹⁵—and since 2010, so has the total amount ¹⁶ of New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. In fact, a recent study ¹⁷ found that a median rent hike of just $100 correlates with a 9% increase in homelessness.