Editor’s note: We recently asked readers to send in their most burning questions about homelessness. One of the top questions was: Does addiction cause homelessness? This post is our first attempt to provide an answer to that complicated question.
Addiction is a significant problem among people who are homeless, but it is a lot less clear whether it is the cause of homelessness for those people.
A detailed survey of homeless people in California conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that 35% of the homeless people interviewed said they used illicit drugs at least three times a week…