BY KAREN BOSSICK

Get a new perspective on homelessness when author Gregg Colburn and Sen. Ali Rabe address the subject at Ketchum’s Community Library.

Colburn, co-author of “Homelessness is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns,” will talk at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 29.

He will be joined by Idaho Sen. Ali Rabe, who will discuss legislative housing initiatives and her organization Jesse Tree, which provides financial assistance and mediation services to tenants in crisis in the Treasure Valley.

Colburn contends that there are substantial regional variations in the rates of homelessness across the United States. In his book he tests conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city, including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, public assistance and low-income mobility. He found that none of those explains the regional variation across the nation. More impactful are housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, he says.

Both Gregg and Rabe will be joined for a Q&A by Mary Fauth, executive director of Blaine County Charitable Fund; Carol Barkes and Mandy Heward of NeuroMediation Group, a landlord-tenant mediation program, and Carissa Connelly, housing director of Blaine County Housing Authority and the City of Ketchum.

To see in person, RSVP at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/12034030.

The program also will be livestreamed and available to watch later at https://vimeo.com/event/4327543.