A few weeks ago, I was sitting next to someone who asked what I do for work. When I told him I serve as a chaplain at a homeless shelter, he replied almost immediately.
“Those people just need to get a job.”
The comment reflects one of the dominant explanations for homelessness. The competing explanation is equally familiar. Homelessness, we are told, is fundamentally a housing affordability problem. People are homeless because rents have risen faster than wages. Both explanations identify part of the problem. Neither explains what I see every day.
According to the 2024 Homeless Crisis Response System Report, the largest reported cause of homelessness in Clark County is the inability to afford housing. Twenty-five percent of respondents identified housing affordability as the primary reason for their homelessness (Council for the Homeless, 2025, 2024 Homeless Crisis Response System Report; Clark County HMIS data, January 1–December 31, 2024). The statistic is revealing, though perhaps not in the way it is usually interpreted.
Over the years, I have watched families enter our shelter, pay no rent, maintain steady employment, and fail to save money. I have watched residents receive tax refunds large enough to eliminate debt or secure future housing only to see the funds disappear within weeks. I have watched households whose income exceeded their obligations continue to fall behind financially. If affordability alone explained homelessness, these observations should be rare. They are not. The problem is that “cannot afford housing” identifies the point at which the crisis became visible. It does not necessarily identify the forces that produced the crisis. A family misses rent because the money is unavailable. That much is obvious. The more difficult question is why the money was unavailable.
When I first entered this work, I assumed the answer was financial ignorance. Experience eventually pushed me toward a different conclusion. Most residents understand basic budgeting principles. Most know they should save money. Most know they should spend less than they earn. The challenge is not usually knowledge. The challenge is that financial decisions are embedded within systems of relationships, obligations, loyalties, and assumptions about the future.
Ruby Payne describes one of the hidden rules operating within many poverty communities:
“One of the hidden rules of poverty is that extra money is shared. In middle class there is a great deal of emphasis on being self-sufficient. In poverty, the clear understanding is that one will never get ahead, so if extra money is available, it is either shared or immediately spent, often on some type of entertainment because entertainment takes away the pain. There are always emergencies and needs; one might as well enjoy the moment. If you don’t share your money, the next time you’re in need you’ll most likely be left out in the cold. It’s the hidden rule of the support system” (A Framework for Understanding Poverty, p. 26).
That description aligns closely with what I have observed. Many residents do not make financial decisions as isolated individuals attempting to maximize future wealth. They make financial decisions as members of networks. Money flows toward relatives in crisis, friends in need, immediate pressures, and present obligations. Future stability competes with present loyalty. Long-term planning competes with short-term survival. Viewed through a middle-class framework, these decisions often appear irrational. Viewed through the logic of reciprocal support networks, they become understandable.
This is why I find both popular explanations of homelessness insufficient. The “get a job” explanation assumes income creates stability. The affordability explanation assumes resources create stability. Neither assumption consistently survives contact with reality.
Employment matters. Housing costs matter. Wages matter. Yet the longer I work with homeless families, the more convinced I become that homelessness cannot be understood apart from the systems of values, obligations, and habits that shape how people use the resources they possess. Housing affordability may be the most commonly reported cause of homelessness. My experience suggests it is often the final chapter of the story rather than the first.