IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhouse/v41y2018icp45-56.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When warm and cold don’t mix: The implications of climate for the determinants of homelessness

Author

Listed:
  • Corinth, Kevin
  • Lucas, David S.

Abstract

It is widely understood that climate affects the spatial distribution of homelessness—warm places have on average higher rates of unsheltered homelessness than cold places. A less recognized fact is that variation in rates of unsheltered homelessness is higher in warm places as well. We document this fact using quantile regression techniques and show that it has important implications for estimating the determinants of homelessness across communities. In particular, housing prices, poverty rates and religiosity are much more strongly associated with rates of unsheltered homelessness in warm places than in cold places. As an alternative to splitting the sample, we find that logarithmic transformations of rates of unsheltered homelessness can be reliably used in a pooled sample. Associations between total homelessness and important covariates also vary across warm and cold places, in this case in terms of both rates and logarithms. Ultimately, future research should carefully account for climate when estimating the determinants of homelessness.

Suggested Citation

  • Corinth, Kevin & Lucas, David S., 2018. "When warm and cold don’t mix: The implications of climate for the determinants of homelessness," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 45-56.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:41:y:2018:i:c:p:45-56
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2018.01.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1051137717302231
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jhe.2018.01.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Corinth, Kevin, 2017. "The impact of permanent supportive housing on homeless populations," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 69-84.
    2. John M. Quigley & Steven Raphael & Eugene Smolensky, 2001. "Homeless In America, Homeless In California," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(1), pages 37-51, February.
    3. Shawn Moulton, 2013. "Does Increased Funding for Homeless Programs Reduce Chronic Homelessness?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(3), pages 600-620, January.
    4. Maria Hanratty, 2017. "Do Local Economic Conditions Affect Homelessness? Impact of Area Housing Market Factors, Unemployment, and Poverty on Community Homeless Rates," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 640-655, July.
    5. Early Dirk W. & Olsen Edgar O., 2002. "Subsidized Housing, Emergency Shelters, and Homelessness: An Empirical Investigation Using Data from the 1990 Census," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-36, August.
    6. Honig, Marjorie & Filer, Randall K, 1993. "Causes of Intercity Variation in Homelessness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 248-255, March.
    7. David S. Lucas, 2017. "The Impact of Federal Homelessness Funding on Homelessness," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(2), pages 548-576, October.
    8. Grimes, Paul W. & Chressanthis, George A., 1997. "Assessing the Effect of Rent Control on Homelessness," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 23-37, January.
    9. Cragg, Michael & O'Flaherty, Brendan, 1999. "Do Homeless Shelter Conditions Determine Shelter Population? The Case of the Dinkins Deluge," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 377-415, November.
    10. O'Flaherty, Brendan & Wu, Ting, 2006. "Fewer subsidized exits and a recession: How New York City's family homeless shelter population became immense," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 99-125, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hilary Silver & Rebecca Morris, 2023. "Homelessness, Politics, and Policy: Predicting Spatial Variation in COVID-19 Cases and Deaths," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Kevin Corinth & Grace Finley, 2020. "The geography of unsheltered homelessness in the city: Evidence from “311” calls in New York," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 628-652, September.
    3. O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2019. "Homelessness research: A guide for economists (and friends)," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-25.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kevin Corinth & Grace Finley, 2020. "The geography of unsheltered homelessness in the city: Evidence from “311” calls in New York," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 628-652, September.
    2. David S. Lucas, 2017. "The Impact of Federal Homelessness Funding on Homelessness," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(2), pages 548-576, October.
    3. O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2019. "Homelessness research: A guide for economists (and friends)," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-25.
    4. William N. Evans & David C. Phillips & Krista Ruffini, 2021. "Policies To Reduce And Prevent Homelessness: What We Know And Gaps In The Research," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 914-963, June.
    5. Corinth, Kevin, 2017. "The impact of permanent supportive housing on homeless populations," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 69-84.
    6. O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2004. "Wrong person and wrong place: for homelessness, the conjunction is what matters," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, March.
    7. Early, Dirk W., 2005. "An empirical investigation of the determinants of street homelessness," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 27-47, March.
    8. Early Dirk W. & Olsen Edgar O., 2002. "Subsidized Housing, Emergency Shelters, and Homelessness: An Empirical Investigation Using Data from the 1990 Census," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-36, August.
    9. O’Flaherty, Brendan, 2012. "Individual homelessness: Entries, exits, and policy," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 77-100.
    10. Maria Hanratty, 2017. "Do Local Economic Conditions Affect Homelessness? Impact of Area Housing Market Factors, Unemployment, and Poverty on Community Homeless Rates," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 640-655, July.
    11. David S. Lucas, 2017. "Federal homelessness policy: A robust political economy approach," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 30(3), pages 277-303, September.
    12. M. Braga & L. Corno, 2011. "Being Homeless: Evidence from Italy," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 70(3), pages 33-73, December.
    13. Richard J. Cebula & Gigi M. Alexander, 2020. "Economic and Noneconomic Factors Influencing Geographic Differentials in Homelessness: An Exploratory State‐Level Analysis," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 79(2), pages 511-540, March.
    14. Allgood, Sam & Warren, Ronald Jr., 2003. "The duration of homelessness: evidence from a national survey," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 273-290, December.
    15. Christian A. L. Hilber & Olivier Schoni, 2022. "Housing policy and affordable housing," CEP Occasional Papers 56, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    16. O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2023. "Aggregate-level inferences from individual-level data: The case of permanent supportive housing and housing first," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(PA).
    17. Kröll, Alexandra & Farhauer, Oliver, 2012. "Examining the roots of homelessness: The impact of regional housing market conditions and the social environment on homelessness in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201213, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    18. Wataru Suzuki, 2008. "What determines the spatial distribution of homeless people in Japan?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(13), pages 1023-1026.
    19. Goodman, Sarena & Messeri, Peter & O'Flaherty, Brendan, 2016. "Homelessness prevention in New York City: On average, it works," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 14-34.
    20. Early, Dirk W. & Olsen, Edgar O., 1998. "Rent control and homelessness," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 797-816, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Homelessness; Climate; Measurement; Religion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R28 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:41:y:2018:i:c:p:45-56. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622881 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.