Lucien's conclusion: "Homelessness can only be caused by people's inability or unwillingness to work to pay the rent."
Why? Public Housing advocates claim that the many homeless people in this city are proof that there is insufficient housing available to them and so more low-income apartments are needed. Lucien points to the examples of many apartments in his own building that remain unrented, along with others in his professional colleagues' buildings. So, since apartments are available, homeless less is not a housing problem.
But, what's the issue here? Just because housing is "available," as in unoccupied, doesn't mean it is "available," as in affordable or accessible to homeless people. Thus, Lucien uses the word "available" in a different way than the public-housing advocate did. We have a clear equivocation flaw!
Therefore, answer choice (C) is our correct answer. If you have any specific questions about the other answer choices, please feel free to clarify.
Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
BrendanJune 25, 2017
Can someone explain why D is wrong? Lucien is assuming that since apartments are vacant that they are available for rent which seems like a serious flaw in his argument.
rweyerApril 19, 2018
The issue with D is that we know nothing about all apartment buildings, it was never brought up. Lucien only brought up his apartments and his professional colleagues.
