Despite low interest rates in the 1980s, the cost of housing rose at all levels . The cost rose faster than inflation during the 1970s and the 1980s. The loss of SROs is paramount . The private and public housing sector has failed to make available the kind of housing that the homeless can afford. New York, for example, lost about 80 percent of theirs since the 1970s.
Some reasons follow.
The poor are poor credit risks. They pay a fee on checks cashed. Gas and convenience stores charge more in inner-city neighborhoods. Urban renewal applied federal funds to remove blighted areas. Huge expanses of houses were removed.