Indeed, excess of homeless and a shortage of affordable housing became burning issues for Mendocino County, Northern California. People who cannot find a place to live have to be content with public shelters or to spend their lives in the streets. It seems that the reasons for the rising homelessness and the lack of housing are economic, such as low income and high housing prices.
Many residents in Northern California became victims of the current economic situation. According to Bachega (2018), booming demand in an area with limited housing offers provoked the increasing cost of living, so those who were financially on the limit lost the ability to afford a place. Therefore, anyone with a tight budget is at risk of being deprived of their home because as their solvency decreases, the prices grow.
That is why it is a mistake to consider homelessness a danger only for a specific category of people with psychological problems. Cowan and Dougherty (2020) claim that although mental health issues are factors to consider, most people who become homeless could be easily housed if there were accommodations that they could afford on their income. Thus, homelessness is driven by economic forces because people simply do not have an alternative place to live. As for a shortage of affordable housing, it results from growing prices, especially in areas where the offer is restricted.
Homelessness and a lack of available accommodation options are among the significant challenges Northern California is facing now. More and more people are compelled to leave their homes, but it is not a sign of a dysfunctional life situation in the majority of cases. In fact, the problem is closely connected to such phenomena of the modern world as low income and high housing prices.
Reference
Bachega, H. (2018). Homeless in US: A deepening crisis on the streets of America. BBC. Web.
Cowan, J., & Dougherty, C. (2020). What would it take to end homelessness?The New York Times. Web.