Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Why All The Increased Homelessness?

 While the reasons for homelessness are numerous, here's one more from Minimum Wages and Homelessness:

...minimum wage increases lead to increased point-in-time homeless population counts. Further analysis suggests disemployment and rental housing prices, but not migration, as mechanisms. Scholars and policymakers who aim to understand and combat homelessness should consider labor market opportunities.

There are always winners AND losers with every policy change. All else being equal, those who had minimum wage jobs and were able to keep those jobs, are winners (at least in the short term) when the minimum wage is increased. Unfortunately, a side effect seems to be homelessness, and those who are homeless are really big losers from increasing the minimum wage.

No comments: