A Snapshot of Homelessness
According to the Alliance's most recent estimate, approximately 744,000 people are homeless on any given night.1 Over the course of a year, between 2.5 and 3.5 million people will experience homelessness in this country.2 In order to end homelessness, it is necessary to understand the needs and characteristics of the sub-populations of this large group. The most significant sub-groups are people who experience homelessness as part of a family group and those who are single adults.
Families
Most families become homeless because they are having a housing crisis. Their primary, immediate need is for housing. Certainly they are likely to have other needs, for services and to increase their incomes. However, these needs are best met, once the family is in permanent housing—not while they are temporarily housed in shelter or transitional housing. Most homeless families get themselves back into housing as quickly as they can after they become homeless.
About half of the individuals who experience homelessness over the course of a year live in family units.3
About 38% of people who are homeless in the course of a year are children.4
Most people in homeless families have personal problems to overcome, but these problems are not appreciably different from those of poor, housed families. 5
Services delivered in the homeless system seem to have little effect on eventual stability of these families in housing.6
Homeless families report that their major needs are for help finding a job, help finding affordable housing, and financial help to pay for housing. The services they most often receive, however, are clothing, transportation assistance, and help in getting public benefits. Only 20% of families report that they received help finding housing.7
In cases in which a family is fleeing from a domestic violence situation or in which the head of household has been in residential treatment or detoxification for drug or alcohol abuse illness, a transitional period may be required prior to housing placement.
Single Homeless People
About half of the people who experience homelessness over the course of a year are single adults. Most enter and exit the system fairly quickly. The remainder essentially live in the homeless assistance system, or in a combination of shelters, hospitals, the streets, and jails and prisons.
80% of single adult shelter users enter the homeless system only once or twice, stay just over a month, and do not return. 9% enter nearly five times a year and stay nearly two months each time. This group utilizes 18% of the system's resources. The remaining 10% enters the system just over twice a year and spends an average of 280 days per stay—virtually living in the system and utilizing nearly half its resources.8
The main types of help homeless single adults felt they needed were help finding a job, help finding affordable housing, and help paying for housing. The major types of assistance they received were clothing, transportation, and help with public benefits. Only 7% reported receiving help finding housing. 9
There are also single homeless people who are not adults—runaway and throwaway youth. This population is of indeterminate size, and is often not included in counts of homeless people. One study that interviewed youth found that 1.6 million had an episode of homelessness lasting at least one night over the course of a year. 10
1
2 Housing and Homelessness, National Alliance to End Homeless, 1987. Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve. Findings of the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients. Highlights. Interagency Council on the Homeless, December, 1999 3 Homeless Programs and the People They Serve, 1999. 4 Burt, M., America's Homeless II. 5 Ellen Bassuk, MD, L.F. Weinreb., MD, J.C. Buckern, PhD, A. Browne, PhD, Amy Salomon, PhD, S. Bassuk. "The Characteristics and Needs of Sheltered Homeless and Low-Income Housed Mothers." The Journal of the American Medical Association, August 28, 1996, Vol. 276, pp. 640-646. 6 Rog, D.J. and Gutman, M., The Homeless Families Program: A Summary of Key Findings. In S. L. Isaacs & J.R. Knickman (eds) To Improve Health and Health Care: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Anthology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997. 7 Homelessness: Programs and People They Serve. 8 Culhane, et al, 1999. 9 Homelessness: Programs and People They Serve. 10 Ringwalt, C.L., Green, J.M., Robertson, M. & McPheeters, M. The Prevalence of Homelessness Among Adolescents in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 1998. In Demographics and Geography: Estimating Need, Martha R. Burt, Ph.D.,Practical Lessons: The 1998 National Symposium on Homelessness Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, August 1999.Cunningham, Mary and Meghan henry. 2007. Homelessness Counts. Washington, DC: National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Families
Most families become homeless because they are having a housing crisis. Their primary, immediate need is for housing. Certainly they are likely to have other needs, for services and to increase their incomes. However, these needs are best met, once the family is in permanent housing—not while they are temporarily housed in shelter or transitional housing. Most homeless families get themselves back into housing as quickly as they can after they become homeless.
About half of the individuals who experience homelessness over the course of a year live in family units.3
About 38% of people who are homeless in the course of a year are children.4
Most people in homeless families have personal problems to overcome, but these problems are not appreciably different from those of poor, housed families. 5
Services delivered in the homeless system seem to have little effect on eventual stability of these families in housing.6
Homeless families report that their major needs are for help finding a job, help finding affordable housing, and financial help to pay for housing. The services they most often receive, however, are clothing, transportation assistance, and help in getting public benefits. Only 20% of families report that they received help finding housing.7
In cases in which a family is fleeing from a domestic violence situation or in which the head of household has been in residential treatment or detoxification for drug or alcohol abuse illness, a transitional period may be required prior to housing placement.
Single Homeless People
About half of the people who experience homelessness over the course of a year are single adults. Most enter and exit the system fairly quickly. The remainder essentially live in the homeless assistance system, or in a combination of shelters, hospitals, the streets, and jails and prisons.
80% of single adult shelter users enter the homeless system only once or twice, stay just over a month, and do not return. 9% enter nearly five times a year and stay nearly two months each time. This group utilizes 18% of the system's resources. The remaining 10% enters the system just over twice a year and spends an average of 280 days per stay—virtually living in the system and utilizing nearly half its resources.8
The main types of help homeless single adults felt they needed were help finding a job, help finding affordable housing, and help paying for housing. The major types of assistance they received were clothing, transportation, and help with public benefits. Only 7% reported receiving help finding housing. 9
There are also single homeless people who are not adults—runaway and throwaway youth. This population is of indeterminate size, and is often not included in counts of homeless people. One study that interviewed youth found that 1.6 million had an episode of homelessness lasting at least one night over the course of a year. 10
1
2 Housing and Homelessness, National Alliance to End Homeless, 1987. Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve. Findings of the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients. Highlights. Interagency Council on the Homeless, December, 1999 3 Homeless Programs and the People They Serve, 1999. 4 Burt, M., America's Homeless II. 5 Ellen Bassuk, MD, L.F. Weinreb., MD, J.C. Buckern, PhD, A. Browne, PhD, Amy Salomon, PhD, S. Bassuk. "The Characteristics and Needs of Sheltered Homeless and Low-Income Housed Mothers." The Journal of the American Medical Association, August 28, 1996, Vol. 276, pp. 640-646. 6 Rog, D.J. and Gutman, M., The Homeless Families Program: A Summary of Key Findings. In S. L. Isaacs & J.R. Knickman (eds) To Improve Health and Health Care: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Anthology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997. 7 Homelessness: Programs and People They Serve. 8 Culhane, et al, 1999. 9 Homelessness: Programs and People They Serve. 10 Ringwalt, C.L., Green, J.M., Robertson, M. & McPheeters, M. The Prevalence of Homelessness Among Adolescents in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 1998. In Demographics and Geography: Estimating Need, Martha R. Burt, Ph.D.,Practical Lessons: The 1998 National Symposium on Homelessness Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, August 1999.Cunningham, Mary and Meghan henry. 2007. Homelessness Counts. Washington, DC: National Alliance to End Homelessness.
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