In both situations there is a lack of resources which causes people to die. This sentence should be read as follows: there's a lack of some resources, and it is this lack that's causing deaths. In effect, without those resources people die; the resources help avoid death. Unfortunately, there's a lack of those resources. This sentence makes sense, and is what you probably want to write.
grammar - When should I use "cause" and "causes"? - English Language ...
Or: Is this the only factor that causes such tragedies? In that form, the singular factor matches with the verb causes. Your sentence mixes the plural rooms with the singular factor, making it hard for you to figure out which form the verb cause (s) should take. (This isn’t necessarily ungrammatical, but sometimes this can make a sentence ...
ripple effect: a situation in which one thing causes a series of other things to happen So you could word your sentence like this: A mismatch has a ripple effect: the current edge should be fixed with respect to the previously-fixed edge, which will need to be reaffixed to the edge before that, etc. Yet another phrase you might use is chain ...
As your link says, "to cause to be" is a definition of the word "make". As such, the phrase and the word can be fairly interchangeable when used that way. "The jalapenos caused my salsa to be too spicy." "The jalapenos made my salsa too spicy." "Chlorine makes my hair dry." "Chlorine causes my hair to be (or to become) dry." I can't think of a circumstance where "to cause to be" would be ...