It's an all of the above issue, but housing prices surely have a role. Why do cities in the midwest and South have lower rates of homelessness? I don't think of Detroit as a paragon of "good families" but they have relatively lower rates of homelessness. Not to say I disagree with you overall, I think the U.S. often lacks strong family and community networks, but even with family there is a stronger push for independence here than I've seen in Europe where I lived for a few years. It's often quite positive -- people go and build startups, they move to new cities for work, older people stay active and remain in their houses... but it flips in the same way that you also have those same independent elderly people who end up in nursing homes far from family and family with kids away from parents who could be built in babysitters/childcare.