Homelessness
Info
Did
You Know................
According to
the National Coalition for the Homeless, June 2006:
Seven
and one half percent of all Americans - which equates to nearly 13 million
people - have been homeless at some point in their lives.
Tonight,
anywhere from 700,000 to 3,000,000 people will be homeless.
Two trends are largely responsible for the rise in homeless-ness over the past 20 - 25 years; a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simlultaneous increase in poverty.
In 2003, children under the age of 18 accounted for 39% of the homeless population; 42% of these children were under the age of five (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2004).
Most studies show that single homeless adults are more likely to be male than female. In 2005, single men comprised 43% of the homeless population and single women comprised 17% (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005).
The number of homeless families with children has increased significantly over the past decade. Families with children are among th fastest growing segements of the homeless population. Research indicates that families, single mothers, and children make up the largest group of people who are homeless in ruual areas (Vissing,1996).
As the number of families experiencing homelessness and the number of affordable housing units shrinks, families,are subject to much longer stays in the shelter system. For instance, in the mid-1990's in New York, families stayed in a shleter and an average of five months before moving on to permanent housing. Today, the average stay is seven months, and some surveys say the average is closer to a year (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005 and Santos, 2002).
Nationally, approximately half of all women and children experiencing homelessness are fleeing domestic violence (Zorza,1991;National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2001).
Research indicates that 40% of homeless men have served in the armed forces, as compared to 34% of the general adult male population (Rosenheck et al.,1996). On any given night, 271,000 veterans are homeless (National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, 1994).
Approximately 22% of the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005).
Declining wages have put housing out of reach of many workers: in every state, more than the minimum wage is required to afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent. In fact, in the median state a minimum-wage worker would have to work 89 hours each week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at 30% of his or her income, which is the federal definition of affordable housing (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2001).
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