That dynamic could produce an unusual phenomenon: rising shelter costs and falling home prices.
The move hurts an extremely vulnerable population in bad economic times and will almost certainly add to shelter costs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles the C.P.I., weighs shelter costs more heavily than any other single item in the overall index.
The consumer price index excluding shelter costs was up 3.7percentt over the year, while Charlotte prices climbed 4.3percentt.
Cutting these modest funds ultimately results in higher state costs in other areas, including increased emergency room visits, public assistance and shelter costs.
The Labor Department said in another report that the Consumer Price Index edged up just 0.1 percent last month, with a rise in shelter costs offsetting a drop in gasoline prices.
To calculate shelter costs, the bureau determines what a homeowner would ask in rent for his home, and assumes that the amounts specified cover actual outlays for maintaining a home.
They argued that homeless people with income should be expected to pay for a portion of their shelter costs, a model that echoes the federal Section 8 housing voucher program.
A program that ran in the South Bronx from 2005 to 2008, for example, provided legal assistance to more than thirteen hundred families and prevented eviction in more than eighty-five per cent of the cases, saving New York City hundreds of thousands of dollars in estimated shelter costs.
The Administration for Children's Services, for example, could be required to pay for the shelter costs of former foster children who ended up homeless when they were discharged at age 21, and the Human Resources Administration could be held responsible for families evicted after they were mistakenly denied aid.
For consumers like myself, the message from the experts is clear: all we need do to stop feeling an inflationary pinch is eat and smoke less, stop traveling, avoid shelter costs and dispense with health-care outlays, while spending exclusively on new cars and laptops.
