SROs might be the solution for some people, including the older and disabled homeless, but many others, including the masses of near-homeless (and soon-to-be-homeless) await a more imaginative solution that gives them a chance at stable household formation, adequately compensated labor, social protection from disability and unemployment, and that supports more diverse and mixed household arrangements than is represented in the proposed SRO solution

Culhane, Dennis P

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ScholarlyCommons@Penn

University of PennsylvaniaScholarlyCommonsDepartmental Papers (SPP) School of Social Policy and PracticeMarch 1990Single Room Housing Won't End HomelessnessDennis P. CulhaneUniversity of Pennsylvania, culhane@upenn.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/spp_papersReprinted from The New York Times, March 1990.This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/spp_papers/131For more information, please contact libraryrepository@pobox.upenn.edu.Recommended CitationCulhane, D. P. (1990). Single Room Housing Won't End Homelessness. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/spp_papers/131Single Room Housing Won't End HomelessnessAbstractSROs might be the solution for some people, including the older and disabled homeless, but many others,including the masses of near-homeless (and soon-to-be-homeless) await a more imaginative solution thatgives them a chance at stable household formation, adequately compensated labor, social protection fromdisability and unemployment, and that supports more diverse and mixed household arrangements than isrepresented in the proposed SRO solution.KeywordshomelessnessCommentsReprinted from The New York Times, March 1990.This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/spp_papers/131C TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1990I Letters",-.~ ..Single-Room Housing Won't End HomelessnessWarning Labels Pave Road to CensorshipEditor118 Edico,."'till EditorlCIIiRB EditorlItftI EdiUlr:tinI Editor:Jl48U1I Editor".Edi.tor:cst Pa&e Edi.torliMntJr><..uon.Prr.xluction. AdvertuingfHwn4n &so~.lytUtrUCit'cu.hJtionin tlte bur!lau-but equally ur-_tive for the1 to relinquishIITios de Cha-bing sanctionsollaboration of:aragua is tof democracy,! Ortep, hasltants who de-forces and se-9foved a gen-'IS as well as!II and lost a;,..; have noweas loyal op-sse this pas-mle for their\ spleen; heI in defusingWashingtontfairly with.The Presi-!IS can con-OIl the re-!lie is run-ty budget~. someTo the Editor:In "The Homelessness Test" (edi-torial, March I), you recognize thatthe loss in single -room occupancyhousing, or S.R.O.'s, has had a seriouseffect on the numbers of people livingon the streets and in shelters. Mental"'health research on the homeless con·firms that this housing shortage ismore critlcal than udeinstitutionali·zation" and other mental health prob--terns among the homeless.Unfortunately, you assume thatmost of the homeless are mentally illor older people who once lived inS.R.O. housing. You argue that thementally ill homeless were deinaltu-tionalized, moved into S.R.O. housing,and when this housing was trans--ferred to other uses, they and manyother S.R.O. residents became home--less - a plausible sequence. How-ever, my own research, and datafrom surveys of the homeless acrossthe nation, suggest that for most ofthe homeless the sequence of eventshas been very dllferenLMost of the homeless are youngadUlts, under age 45. Most have neverlived in S.R.O. housing. Fewer than ISpercent have been hospitalized formental disorders. And more than hallthe homeless population is homelessfor less than silt months.You dismiSS the causal role of dein-stitutionalizatlon in the 1960's and70's because of its distance in timefrom the Increasing homeless popula-tion of the SO's, but you fall to recog-nize that much of the lou in S.R.O.housing also took place before the1980's. Though some peop!e undoubt-edly became homeless because ofS.R.O. converslom - a deed that. should be redressed - the evidencedoes not sugpot the 10SIl of S.R.O.'sas a widespread. direct source ofhomelessnes•. The realimpaet of lostS.R.O.'s on homelessness is that whena new segment of people became resi-dentially unstable in the 1980's, theydid not have this stoCk of cbeaprooms '" fall back on. What migbt.have been hidden in the old problem. of skid row homelessness became anew problem of emergency Shelterhomelessness.That most of the homeless areyoung adults, not mentally ill and havenever lived in S.R.O. housing suggestswider causes of the homeless problemand more ambitious solutions than in·. creasing the number of S.R.O. units.Poor, urban, young adults have seentwo decades in which growth indus-tries have favored better educatedsuburban populations and where thejobs available to unskilled workershave paid wages that have steadily de-clined against inflation (the value ofthe minimum wage declined 31 per-cent between 1980 and 1988).Across the country, people who relyon public assistance have likewiseseen the value of benefits deteriorateagainst inflation, nearly 50 percentsince the early 1970's. Compoundingdeclines in income among young,. urban adults has been a sharp rise inthe cost of housing. S.R.O.'s have dis-appeared, and staIidard rental apart-ments COIIllume nearly 65 percent ofthe avel1llle poor household's income.This dramatic combination of forcespushed a new generation into residen-tiallnstability and, ultimately, home- .lessness. Given the. intense competi-tion. for resources in Impoverished.communities, it is no surprise that thedilabled, the defIant and the deviantwere the first and mosnlkely '" besqueezed out or forced to choose nuLRow can we best llIIderstand thisnew group of people from whom themajority of the homeless comes?They are people who cannot afford toform lew households. They are....who are not settllng new fami-lies or living in their own apartmentsat the rate their parents did.While more S.R.O.'. would providean option for them, do we want to in-stitutionalize a new skid row? Moreimportant, Is that what most home-less people want? Before the boom inemergency shelters in the 1980's,residenta of s.R.O.'s used to be con-sidered "bomeless."What really needs to be addressedIs the marginal housing and incomestatus of a generation of young and'poor adults. The homeless represent - .a small segment of a much larger.problem of poverty and restricted aprportunity reflected in the rapid turn-~over of the homeless population, inthe increase in urban crime, in prison -_overcrowding and in the countless lvictims of the drug economy.S.R.O.'s might be the solution for~some people, including the older and ldisabled homeless, but many others, .including the masses of near·home--·less (and soon-to-be-homeless), await· .a more imaginative solution that'gives them a chance at stable house--.hold formation, adequately compen-sated labor, SOCial protection fromdisability and unemployment, andthat supports more diverse andmixed household arrangements thanIs represented in the proposed S.R.O.solution. DENNIS P. CULHANE-Needham, Mass., March I. 1990The writer has completed a doctoraCdissertation on homelessness.•A Generation AdriftTo the Editor:Your March I editorlal attributesthe rise of homeless people on thestreets of New York City to the loss orsingle room occupancy housing. Y!lU'recommend that the state s~some half a billion dollars to creatit10,000 new S.R.O. rooms. As a COI),..tractor who has employed homele'"laborers. and as a small New YorkCftJ landlord, I believe your diagnosls-and cure areoff the mark.Because of the increase in home--less people in major cities across thecountry it seems implausible toblame local events for the increase iJiNew York. The homeless men I haveemployed are highly mobile, youngerthan 40, mostly black. poorlyeducat-ed, some with mental health prob-lems or a minor criminal record. Allhave alcohol and drug problems.They drift from city to city, workingoccasionally, slaying with relativeswhere possible and winGIng up m theshelters only when they have ex'hausted their welcome elsewhere. :These are not tlle people who in-habitS.R.O~'S.S.R.O. inhabit"ants are, in , middle:aged to e ~inant1ywomen. Nor 1lIlllll6,. UUting more_S.R.O.'s lIeIp IIIe~ male home--less. lb.... .-. ClUlI'IOt hang onto···money frora one dall to the next. The;only kind of housiDa they could use,would be $5-0..... ftopliouses - il.-·'!egahmder current iIIlusing codes. .:If the loss of S.R.O. 's has not created.the surge in homelessness, what has?'" .... " .... ~,... ;c:o ~"' .. 1' t1-o", "1I''''TlIT ......~lp r\rift· .f[fIf~;.;

Single Room Housing Won\u27t End Homelessness

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Single Room Housing Won\u27t End Homelessness

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