Guest speaker: Dr. Gregg Colburn, Assistant Professor of Real Estate at the University of Washington College of Built Environments.

In the new book, “Homelessness is a Housing Problem,” housing scholar Gregg Colburn and Data Journalist Clayton Aldern seek to explain the substantial variation in rates of homelessness apparent in cities across the United States.

Using accessible statistics, the researchers test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain why, for example, rates are so much higher in Seattle than in Chicago. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a more convincing explanation.

Housing Opportunities for All VIP professors Dr. Vanessa Fry and Dr. Krista Paulsen will provide local context and provide students with information on how to join their course this coming spring.