Why the US Has a Housing Crisis and Other Countries Don't
Cherry Willow Apparel Editorial Team · Published August 19, 2026 · Sourced from HUD, Japan's MHLW & the OECD
The United States has a housing crisis that most other wealthy countries have largely avoided, and the gap is not a mystery. The US builds far less housing relative to demand than countries like Japan, spends a fraction of what countries like the Netherlands and Austria invest in social housing, and offers weaker protection against eviction and sudden rent increases. Japan's government counted 2,591 homeless people nationwide in January 2025. The United States counted 745,652 people on a single night that same month. The difference comes down to policy choices, some made decades ago and some being made right now, not something inevitable about American life.
How the US compares to other countries on homelessness
International homelessness comparisons come with a real caveat: every country counts differently. Some, like the US, run a single night point in time count that misses people doubling up with family or friends. Others, like Japan, only tally people visibly sleeping outside and exclude people staying in 24 hour internet cafes, a group Japanese researchers refer to as the hidden homeless. Keep that in mind reading the numbers below. Even with generous adjustment for undercounting on every side, the scale of the gap between the US and its peers is too large to explain away as a counting difference.
Sources: HUD, 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report; Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, via Nippon.com; Up For Growth, 2025 Housing Underproduction Report.
Adjusted for population, the US counted roughly 22 people experiencing homelessness per 10,000 residents in January 2025, calculated from the HUD figure above against current US population estimates. Japan's count, even taken at face value with its narrower definition, works out to well under 1 per 10,000. Finland, which built its entire national strategy around ending long term homelessness, has kept its rate in the single digits per 10,000 for most of the past decade. The US is not simply a bit behind its peers here. It is an outlier among wealthy democracies.
Why the US builds less housing than Japan
The most basic driver of the US housing crisis is supply. Up For Growth's 2025 housing underproduction report puts the national shortfall at 3.78 million homes, and other estimates using different methodologies put the number as high as 4.7 million to 8.2 million. Whatever the exact figure, every state now shows some degree of underproduction, a shift from a decade ago when the shortage was mostly a coastal, big city problem.
Zoning is a major reason why. Most American cities set aside the large majority of their residential land exclusively for single family detached homes, by law barring duplexes, small apartment buildings, or mixed housing types from that land regardless of demand. Los Angeles zones more than 72% of its land this way. Japan takes a fundamentally different approach: national, relatively permissive zoning rules with few restrictions on building type or density, and a housing ministry that can update building rules without a lengthy legislative fight. The result is that Japan builds roughly five times as much housing per capita as California, and a one bedroom apartment in Tokyo rents for about half what a comparable unit costs in Chicago.
What the Netherlands and Austria spend on social housing that the US doesn't
Supply is half the story. The other half is how much of that supply a country deliberately keeps affordable through social or public housing, meaning housing that is government owned, government subsidized, or otherwise reserved below market rate. Here the US gap is even starker than the zoning gap.
| Country | Share of housing stock that's social/public housing | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| United States | ~0.6% | About 860,000 traditional public housing units out of roughly 149.4 million total US housing units |
| Austria | ~24% | OECD Affordable Housing Database, most recent country level figure; second highest share among OECD members |
| Netherlands | ~34% | OECD Affordable Housing Database; the highest share among OECD members |
Sources: HUD public housing unit counts; OECD Affordable Housing Database. Definitions vary by country: the US figure above covers traditional public housing only, a narrower category than the broader "social rental housing" the OECD tracks. Even under that broader definition, the US still sits at the low end of the OECD, in the 2 to 10% range, and Denmark and the UK also sit above 15%, alongside Austria and the Netherlands.
Austria's capital, Vienna, goes further than the national figure suggests. On top of the country's social housing sector, the city runs its own large scale municipal housing program where rent is tied to household income and long term tenancy is legally secure, sometimes passed down within a family for generations. Roughly 80% of Vienna's population qualifies by income for this housing. Vienna has virtually no visible homeless population as a result, not because Austrians are wealthier or the city is smaller, but because the city treats housing as public infrastructure rather than primarily a private investment.
- Rent tied to income, not the market: Vienna residents in social housing pay a share of their income, which protects them from eviction when a job is lost or an illness hits.
- Long term security: tenancy is not time limited or means tested away once someone's income improves, which avoids pushing people back toward instability.
- Broad eligibility: social housing in Vienna is not only for the poorest residents, which keeps the program politically durable and avoids concentrating poverty in a small set of buildings.
Housing First works, but it needs housing to work with
Housing First, the approach of moving someone into permanent housing first and layering support services on top rather than requiring sobriety or program compliance before housing, is often credited or blamed for US homelessness trends. Finland is the clearest test case anywhere in the world. It adopted Housing First as national strategy in 2008 and cut single person homelessness by roughly 45% over the following decade, becoming the only country in Europe with consistently falling homelessness through that period. By 2023 Finland had beaten its own reduction targets.
This matters for how the US reads its own data. Between 2013 and 2025, the US expanded taxpayer funded shelter and permanent supportive housing beds by 151%, yet homelessness still grew 27% over the same stretch, because the underlying shortage of affordable homes kept outpacing the response. More beds without more homes moves people between programs. It does not close the gap, even though permanent housing remains cheaper than the alternatives it's meant to replace.
What this means for the people behind the numbers
It is easy for a comparison like this one to turn homelessness into a spreadsheet exercise: zoning maps, percentage points, national rankings. Cherry Willow Apparel exists because that framing leaves something out. Every one of the 745,652 people the US counted in January 2025 is a person with a name, a history, and, whatever the policy failures around them, inherent dignity that a point in time count cannot capture. Founder Matt Fogarty started this brand after watching a stranger buy someone experiencing homelessness a new set of clothes and introduce themselves by name, a small act that the founder describes as the moment he understood how much simple acknowledgment matters when the world has stopped seeing someone at all.
Policy is how a country decides, at scale, whether people get to keep their housing. But solidarity is what happens between the policy debates, in the recognition that someone sleeping outside tonight is not a statistic to be managed but a neighbor to be seen. Closing the gap between the US and countries like Austria or Finland will take zoning reform, sustained investment in social housing, and stronger tenant protections. It will also take the kind of visible, everyday solidarity Cherry Willow builds its mission around, the reminder that people are not facing this alone.
Policy explains the gap. People help close it.
Every purchase and donation helps fund direct support for people experiencing homelessness in your community, while we keep telling the stories the policy debates leave out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the United States have more homelessness than other wealthy countries?
Mainly three compounding gaps: the US builds far less housing relative to demand than countries like Japan, invests a fraction of what countries like the Netherlands and Austria spend on social housing, and offers weaker protections against eviction and sudden rent increases. Homelessness rises when all three gaps hit low income renters at once.
Do other countries have homelessness too?
Yes, homelessness exists almost everywhere, but the scale varies enormously and definitions differ by country. Japan's government counted 2,591 people nationwide in its January 2025 street count, while the US counted 745,652 on a single night the same month, a roughly hundredfold difference even after accounting for population size.
What is Housing First and does it actually work?
Housing First moves people into permanent housing before requiring sobriety or treatment compliance, then layers support services on top. Finland adopted it nationally in 2008 and cut single person homelessness by roughly 45% over the following decade. It works best when there is enough housing supply to place people into, which is the piece the US has struggled to build. Read our deeper dive on Housing First for more.
Why doesn't the US build enough affordable housing?
Most American cities zone the majority of their residential land exclusively for single family homes, which blocks apartments, duplexes, and other mid density housing by law. Los Angeles zones more than 72% of its land this way. Countries like Japan use far more permissive, nationally standardized zoning, which is a major reason Japan builds roughly five times as much housing per capita as California. See our full breakdown of US zoning laws.
What is Vienna's social housing model?
Vienna, Austria's capital, runs a large city owned and subsidized housing program where rent is tied to household income and tenancy is legally secure long term. Roughly 80% of Vienna residents qualify by income for this housing. The result is a city with virtually no visible homeless population.
How can I help address the housing crisis in the US?
Support local organizations doing direct outreach and permanent housing placement, back Housing First aligned policy in your city or state, and treat people experiencing homelessness as neighbors rather than statistics. Cherry Willow Apparel channels apparel sales and donations toward partners doing this work directly. See our impact page to learn more.
Sources: HUD's 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (reported by Nippon.com), the OECD Affordable Housing Database, and Up For Growth's 2025 Housing Underproduction Report. Figures reflect the most recent data available as of publication and will shift as new counts and reports are released.
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