by Jackie Jenks

It’s become common to hear people talk about homelessness as if it were an unavoidable fact of life in the United States — a tragic but permanent feature of our society. But accepting that idea means accepting that human beings will always sleep on concrete. It means numbing ourselves to the fact that young people, women, and older adults will continue to walk the streets all night because lying down makes them vulnerable to assault. It means becoming accustomed to watching our neighbors carry everything they own in a plastic bag. It means overlooking the fact that our Black and brown neighbors are disproportionately living in our shelters and on our streets, once again getting the short end of the stick. 

At IFC, we do not accept homelessness as an unavoidable reality. 

Homelessness is not an inherent condition of modern life. It grew because, over decades, we stopped building affordable places for people to live. We cut funding. We tore down housing faster than we replaced it. We allowed rents to shoot up while wages barely moved. We didn’t prioritize funding for social services to meet the increasing need.  

Homelessness is the predictable result of decades of policy decisions at the local, state, and federal levels. And because it was created by us, it can be solved by us.  

Modern-day homelessness took shape starting in the early 1980s, when federal investment in affordable housing dropped sharply. Since then: 

• Deeply affordable homes disappeared by the hundreds of thousands. 
• Rents rose faster than paychecks almost everywhere. 
• Public housing was demolished and barely replaced. 
• Local zoning rules were enacted that made it harder to build anything but expensive, single-family homes. 

When you combine the lack of affordable housing with a single crisis — a lost job, a medical bill, a breakup, a disability, a rent hike — the path to the streets is short. And once you’re out there, the road back indoors is long and difficult. 

Despite the scale of the problem, communities across the country have shown that homelessness can be reduced when we commit to real solutions. 

• Housing First and Supportive Housing: Provide stable homes paired with services for people who need ongoing support.  
• Rental Assistance and Eviction Prevention: Help people stay housed when rents spike and during short-term crises. 
• Increased Supply: Build housing that fits all income levels and change zoning laws to do it. 

We can all be part of the solution by:  

Supporting the organizations doing the daily work, as you do when you contribute funds, time, and energy to IFC; 

Speaking up in support of affordable housing when it’s proposed in our community, including when it’s in your neighborhood; 

Voting for local funding that expands housing and services; 

Dispelling myths around homelessness, and speaking up for people who are unhoused: 

• Living without a secure place to lay your head is traumatizing and destabilizing 
• People in this situation are doing all they can to survive 
• Our community simply does not have housing that fits everyone’s needs and circumstances 

And talking to community leaders about investing in real solutions — pushing them to think expansively and abundantly: 

• Creatively fund and build housing that meets the variety of needs and income levels that exist in our community 
• Put safeguards in place so that people forced to live outside are not criminalized for their circumstances 
• Promote safe outdoor living by providing land that allows for camping and parking, warming and misting stations, and resource centers with laundry facilities, showers, and storage. 

We don’t have to accept a country where people sleep outside. Homelessness is a choice we made; it’s time to make a different one. 

This piece was first published in IFC’s Spring 2026 Newsletter.