By the Rev. Ken Howard

The Problem

Homelessness has become a pervasive, persistent, and rapidly increasing problem throughout the United States. Its impact reaches well beyond the unhoused population, touching and taxing a vast number of services, systems, and sectors of the country, including: community and economic development, construction and real estate, education, faith communities, healthcare, nonprofit and governmental service organizations, retail services, and more.

Beyond the fact that preventing homelessness is a moral imperative, research has shown that it is vastly more cost-effective than intervening in homelessness after the fact, by a factor of 10-to-1. In dealing with homelessness, as well as so many other issues, prevention requires prediction, and it is extremely difficult to quantify even the extent of homelessness, let alone predict it in any meaningful way.

A Proposed Solution to the Problem of Prediction

FaithX believes that it is possible to develop a predictive analytic that would help leaders, practitioners, and planners assess the likelihood of homelessness long before it has become entrenched.

While the causes of homelessness are complex, there are three available housing instability metrics that tend to be precursors of homelessness in any particular area: 

1. The percentage of households in renter-occupied dwellings. As renters are more easily displaced than owners, a higher percentage of renters in an area indicates a higher likelihood of people in that area losing stable housing.
2. The percentage of rent-burdened households. As the percentage of renting households spending more than 30% of their income on rent increases in an area, so does the likelihood of people in that area losing stable housing.
3. The percentage of mortgage-burdened households. As the percentage of households spending more than 30% of their income on mortgage increases in an area, so does the likelihood of people in that area losing stable housing.

Available Now: A Predictive Analytic

In 2023, FaithX again teamed up with our partner, Datastory, to develop an online tool for predicting the likelihood of people in any neighborhood becoming unhoused. We call it the “Housing Instability Index.”

This tool is now a part of the MapDash for Faith Communities interactive, online, demographic/analytic platform, as well as the interactive infographic Neighborhood Insights Report that FaithX makes available to its clients.

The Housing Instability Index provides a practical solution for anticipating homelessness. By integrating these insights into your mission, your congregation can be part of the solution.

Questions or interested in learning more? Reach out to us at info@faithx.net. We’d love to talk with you!