Homelessness in the United States: Causes, Consequences, and Capitalism’s Role in the Crisis

📚 Course Overview

Homelessness is one of the most visible yet misunderstood crises in the United States. This eye-opening course offers a comprehensive and critical examination of homelessness as a structural failure—not a personal one. With a firm grounding in data, history, economics, and justice-based frameworks, students will explore the root causes of homelessness, the role of capitalism and private equity in the housing crisis, and how modern society continues to criminalize poverty while ignoring systemic reform.

🧠 What You’ll Learn

• The true scope and demographics of homelessness in the U.S., beyond the stereotypes
• How capitalism, housing commodification, and corporate landlords perpetuate mass housing insecurity
• The reality that millions of unhoused individuals are employed, often full-time, but still can’t afford a place to live
• How private equity firms and real estate speculators exploit the housing market, drive up rent, and neglect tenant welfare
• How racism, inequality, and neoliberal policy have created a permanent underclass
• Effective and proven global models for solving homelessness (like Finland’s Housing First model and Vienna’s social housing)
• The importance of grassroots organizing, mutual aid, and policy change in fighting for housing justice

🌍 Why This Course Matters

In the richest country in the world, millions sleep on streets, in cars, or bounce between unstable living arrangements. This course reframes homelessness as a political failure rather than a moral one. By analyzing housing through the lens of capitalism, human rights, and class struggle, students are equipped not only to understand the crisis but to advocate for transformative solutions.

✊ Who This Course is For

• Students of sociology, political science, public policy, or economics
• Activists, mutual aid workers, and housing justice advocates
• Journalists, teachers, and professionals seeking a deeper understanding of homelessness
• Anyone tired of mainstream narratives and looking for truth, data, and solutions rooted in justice