In Lois Lowry's The Giver, how is the problem of homelessness solved by the community?

The community in Lowry's The Giversolves the homelessness problem through population control. For instance, one of the community's policies is to allow only a specific number of babies to be born each year. In chapter 14, the Giver explains to Jonas that the Committee of Elders once asked about increasing the number of births each year so there would be more laborers in the workforce. Some family units also desired to have three children...

The community in Lowry's The Giver solves the homelessness problem through population control. For instance, one of the community's policies is to allow only a specific number of babies to be born each year. In chapter 14, the Giver explains to Jonas that the Committee of Elders once asked about increasing the number of births each year so there would be more laborers in the workforce. Some family units also desired to have three children instead of two. At the time, the Giver drew upon his memories and remembered the devastation that could be the result of having large populations--widespread hunger. Therefore, he told the Elders not to increase the population. His reasons are as follows:

"And the strongest memory that came was hunger. It came from many generations back. Centuries back. The population had gotten so big that hunger was everywhere. Excruciating hunger and starvation. It was followed by warfare" (111).

After receiving the Giver's advice about population control, the Committee of Elders decided not to allow more children to be born than could be fed. As a result, the policy to continue limiting family units to having only two children remained in effect. Furthermore, Nurturers like Jonas's father continued to euthanize the smaller baby of twins so the population's number could stay balanced. Jonas actually sees this policy in action in chapter 19 when he watches a video of his father releasing a baby who was born a twin. Jonas becomes horrified when he witnesses the killing of an innocent baby by his father; but the Elders believe that it is better to kill a twin, thereby maintaining population control, in order to keep hunger and warfare at bay.