Homelessness has become a major problem in America and it is getting worse. There has been a lot of discussion among politicians and political pundits about how to fix the problem, but rarely do these discussions address what is causing people to become homeless.
Providing shelter for homeless people and helping those with drug addictions is the right thing to do on moral grounds, but they aren’t changing the situation that causes people to become homeless.
Saying the programs aren’t working because we keep getting more homeless people is illogical when you don’t do anything about what causes people to become homeless.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness published a paper titled, The State of Homelessness 2025 Edition, on Sept. 4, 2025. In this paper, they state that according to their point-in-time count, homelessness had increased 18% in one year (2023 count compared to 2024 count). In this same report, they list the leading causes of homelessness: “Low incomes, a lack of affordable housing, and weak safety nets drive record high homelessness.”
The 2024 Census said nearly half of American renters were cost-burdened. The cost of renting keeps rising at a much higher rate than wages, which leads to a situation where even full-time workers often can’t afford to rent an apartment. The average cost of rent for a studio apartment in Lewis County is between $950 and $1,220.
In America, we don’t have universal health insurance, and health insurance costs more than in any other developed nation. Many people go bankrupt when they become sick. Health problems can also lead to a person ending up homeless.
One way to help lower the number of homeless people is to increase the supply of affordable housing.
The government could build more public housing like they used to, or they can enact policies that increase the likelihood that private developers will build more low-cost rental properties.
Zoning laws that have kept the supply of multiple-unit housing low has severely limited low-cost housing.
Wealthy residents want their communities to have large single family residences only, so they have pressured the zoning commission to limit multiple-unit housing in their areas. Younger people and less wealthy people need these zoning laws to change.
It is very difficult to build any form of housing today, particularly in Washington.
The regulations governing permitting add a lot of time and cost to housing construction.
These regulations should be looked at to see if they can be changed to speed up construction on affordable housing without severe negative costs to the environment, safety or other legitimate community needs.
Minimum wages should be high enough to live near the community you work in. Safety nets should ensure no one is forced to live on the street.
The healthcare system needs to be reformed to stop all the health related bankruptcies.
Let’s push our Legislature to make a meaningful change in policies to fix the true causes of homelessness.
Daniel Meekhof
Packwood
