The following are excerpts from Genevieve Leigh's 19 December 2018 article headlined "Rising homelessness: The reality of life for workers in a 'booming' US economy". On any given night in the United States 553,000 people experience homelessness, according to the 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and sent to Congress on Monday.... Reports have emerged this year documenting the growing number of adjunct college professors, many of whom have a Masters degree or PhD, who are forced to live in their cars. Dubbed the “fast food workers of the academic world,” a quarter of these workers are said to be enrolled in public assistance programs. During the wave of teachers’ strikes that erupted early in the year across the US, thousands of teachers spoke out about being forced because of low wages to take second and even third jobs to make ends meet.... https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...americans-living-in-their-cars-video-11413960
I don't know, I can only tell you what happened in the town here. When the real estate market recovered, suddenly rents and home prices started climbing and many people could not afford them. Old houses that were falling apart started being renovated, either to be sold or rented for more. Many speculators were sitting on homes they could not (or did not want to) sell because they were worth less than they paid for it. While they were waiting for the home prices to recover many of these homes were rented out to tenants at bargain prices. Finally when the home prices recovered, the homes were sold and the tenants had to look elsewhere. Also during the depths of the Recession there were many people short on money who were renting out rooms in their house. With fewer desperate homeowners, it became harder for people down on their luck to find rooms for rent. So of course while the Recession was difficult for many people, it also had its silver lining that helped prevent the level of homelessness from going as high as it might otherwise have gone. I think now that that silver lining is has gone away, we are seeing some of the fuller effects of what the Recession has left in its wake. Also the population has continued to increase due to immigration, so that is not helping the affordable housing situation. There are plenty of new homes and new high rise apartments that have been built, but since those are completely new they cost more money, not everyone can afford them (or thinks they are worth paying for).