University of Maryland
Sociology 498: Homelessness 

O'Flaherty: Making Room: The Economics of Homelessness

Overview

This is the most recent book we will read, and in some ways the most difficult. O'Flaherty is an economist so his "way of knowing" is quite different from the others. He starts out not unlike the others, but in chapter 6 it becomes clear that the author is not a sociologist but an economist. Here he develops a mathematical model to describe how housing becomes available for poor people. Everything else -- data analysis, policy recommendations -- derives from that model, so we need to spend a good deal of time trying to understand how that model works. Then we will see how O'Flaherty derives policy recommendations based on that model and compare those recommendations to the policies advocated by our other authors.

Chapter 6: How to think about homelessness

We have already accumulated evidence from Rossi, Burt, Honig and Filer, and (maybe) Jencks that housing shortages are one of the causes of the growth in homelessness. O'Flaherty makes a major contribution in trying to explain why those housing shortages developed at the low income level. His economic model incorporates several factors; his explanation is not always easy to follow. But it is important to understand because if insufficient housing is a cause of homelessness, we must understand what are the causes of that cause.

O'Flaherty builds a model that ends up suggesting that several factors could lead to a shortage of housing for the poor. You need to understand each of those possible factors.

Then, O'Flaherty argues (chapter 7) that the evidence from his four cities favors one of those factors. You will need to look carefully at the numbers he actually provides and then see if his conclusion fits those numbers. Frankly, for one part of the argument, I think he draws the wrong conclusion from his own numbers. This is a detective mission; see if you can find the problems.

Here are the exam questions based on chapter 6 that you need to be able to answer: Describe how the following are linked to rates of homelessness by describing how they are (or are not) linked to


Thus, how does each of the following affect homelessness rates?
  1. the size of the middle-income population,
  2. the size of the lowest-income population,
  3. increased operating costs.

Perhaps a better way to begin discussion and to work towards answers to those questions is to focus on these problems:

If you can answer those questions, then you understand the mechanisms which O'Flaherty argues is creating the housing shortage for the poor.

Chapter 7: Income distribution

What is the evidence about changes in the income distribution? Which of the above explanations is this evidence consistent with?

What is the evidence about changes in the available quantities of low-cost housing over time and which of the above explanations is this consistent with?

What is the evidence about changes in the available quality of low-cost housing over time and which of the above explanations is this consistent with?

Chapter 12: Mental Health

This chapter (and the next on substance abuse) reviews many of the arguments we have already discussed, especially for Jencks. But O'Flaherty is writing later so he has the benefit of considering the earlier arguments. He also has more data. So, this should be a good review and update.

Regarding the evidence about the incidence of mental illness among the homeless, O'Flaherty discusses familiar problems:

  1. Measurement problems
  2. Causal inference problems
Be sure to review these arguments. Like Jencks, O'Flaherty doesn't think these problems invalidate the general conclusion. What do you think?

Then, O'Flaherty turns to a longer discussion of the de-institutionalization argument. Table 12-1 presents the long time series for the cities he is considering. What do you make of these numbers?

Table 12-2 adds a consideration that we haven't seen yet. What else is suggested by these numbers?

O'Flaherty then reviews and tries to counter Jencks' arguments that the 1970s de-institutionalization was different from the earlier de-institutionalization. What is the counter-evidence?

O'Flaherty ends with a couple of brief arguments about "other effects". These may be more worth thinking about than even O'Flaherty considers. The arguments are more sociological than anything else O'Flaherty discusses because they talk about how mental illness might affect other people who will then increase homelessness. Economists sometimes call these "spillover" effects, but they are basic for most sociologists. How might the homelessness of the mentally ill affect:

  1. landlords of flophouses, SROs, etc.?
  2. other non-mentally ill homeless?

Finally, what is your policy conclusion about what we should do about the relationship between mental illness and homelessness? What are the alternatives and what are their advantages and disadvantages?

Chapter 13: Substance Abuse

O'Flaherty has some specific data on alcohol abuse over time? What does it suggest about the macro-level relationship between alcoholism and homelessness?

He also presents more complete data on crack and cocaine use as well as hospitalization due to cocaine use. How do these data contradict and how do they support Jenck's argument that crack was a cause of the continued rise of homelessness in the mid to late 1980s? What is O'Flaherty's argument about substitution?

Again, what should be done? What are the alternatives and what are the advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives?
 

return to: Sociology 498 home page Sociology 498 schedule
Last updated May 8, 2007
comments to: Reeve Vanneman. reeve@cwmills.umd.edu