Housing conditions and homelessness

In “Housing Conditions and Homelessness,” John C. Weicher, Assistant Secretary for Housing/Federal Housing Administration Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, discusses trends in homelessness and housing conditions. His main sources of data are the American Housing Survey (AHS) and special surveys on homelessness. Because of the dearth of post-1996 data, he focuses on trends before welfare reform. In regard to homelessness, Weicher explains that few reliable data are available, so that estimates of the total number of homeless people are problematic. He estimates that about 600,000 people are homeless in an average week, and that the estimate can vary over the course of a year. The most recent national data are for 1996 and serve as a baseline from which to observe trends. At present, virtually no evidence indicates that homelessness has increased (or decreased) since the passage of welfare reform.