Reasons for this transformation are diverse, including technological changes, globalization, labor unions and wages, tax policies, municipal transportation and infrastructure. The result is the kind of poverty that prevails in such neighborhoods. It is not a surprise that the poverty is most concentrated and most debilitating in those neighborhoods that have suffered from the most dramatic disinvestment. It is also hardly surprising that studies demonstrate that the vast majority of Philadelphia's homeless population came from particularly blighted and unstable neighborhoods. Just as was happening nationwide, Philadelphia's stock of affordable housing was drastically disappearing.
Recent studies show that the crisis of affordable housing continues to worsen.
Because of rising housing costs, shrinking real wages, and destruction of millions of affordable housing units, an alarming number of American families face a housing problem. In 1997, nearly 19 million households were low-income and most paying too much for housing. The national housing crisis hit Philadelphia hard. Much of the City's housing stock is older and in need of substantial upgrading and repair. Another indication of the squeeze in housing is the lengthy waiting lists for subsidized housing for low-income families.