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2007-01-10
National Alliance to End Homelessness;
A movement to end homelessness is underway. Thousands of stakeholders -- policymakers, advocates, researchers, practitioners, former and current homeless people, community leaders, and concerned citizens -- from across the country are involved in efforts to end homelessness at the local and national level. Today, hundreds of communities are re-tooling their homeless assistance systems and have committed to ending homelessness through local plans. At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) homelessness assistance programs are targeting resources to permanent housing, and the Congress and the Bush Administration have committed to ending chronic homelessness by developing 150,000 units of permanent supportive housing for people who have been homeless for long periods. The private sector, through major philanthropic organizations, is engaging and funding efforts that focus on permanent solutions for homeless people. And new research and imaginative policies at the state and local level are paving the way. Taken together, these efforts represent a nationwide effort to end homelessness. How will we know if these efforts are successful? This report lays the groundwork for measuring efforts to end homelessness by establishing a baseline number of homeless people from which to monitor trends in homelessness. We use local point-in-time counts of homeless people to create an estimate of the number of homeless people nationwide. As with all data, the counts included in this report are not perfect and have numerous limitations, but they are the best data available at this time. In January 2005, an estimated 744,313 people experienced homelessness. 56 percent of homeless people counted were living in shelters and transitional housing and, shockingly, 44 percent were unsheltered. 59 percent of homeless people counted were single adults and 41 percent were persons living in families. In total, 98,452 homeless families were counted. 23 percent of homeless people were reported as chronically homeless, which, according to HUD's definition, means that they are homeless for long periods or repeatedly and have a disability. A number of states had high rates of homelessness, including Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington State. In addition, Washington, DC had a high rate of homeless people. These statistics show that far too many people are homeless. There is, however, reason for optimism. During the past five years, community approaches to homelessness have changed and thousands of people are working toward the shared goal of ending homelessness. Measuring their success or failure will depend on collecting and analyzing outcome data, monitoring changes in homelessness populations, and understanding which interventions lead to different outcomes. Yet, up until now, we had no recent data on how many people are homeless in the United States. The data in this report represent the first effort to count homeless people nationwide in 10 years. We hope to make this report an annual report, tracking progress on the efforts to end homelessness nationwide. It is our belief that what gets measured, gets done.
2001-04-01
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless;
CCH estimates that, over the course of a year, more than 25,000 youth in Illinois experience homelessness. Homeless youth are between the ages of 14 and 21 who have left home because of serious family problems, are not in a safe and stable living situation, and cannot be reunited with their families.
2002-12-01
Social IMPACT Research Center;
People who are homeless across the Chicago region are individuals and families with a large variety of backgrounds and experiences. This holds true in all geographic locations, as do the reasons people cite for their homelessness. The average length of time people at risk of homelessness had lived in their respective jurisdiction was 13 years, and for those who were homeless it was 14 years
2007-06-26
Boston Foundation, The;
Evaluates lessons learned from the first three years of the Homelessness Prevention Initiative (HPI), which studies successful models of homelessness prevention and has distributed $3 million in grants to service agencies to test new program strategies.
2010-10-01
Wilder Research Center;
This is a comprehensive study of the causes, circumstances, and effects of homelessness in Minnesota. In October 2009, interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews with 4,570 people experiencing homelessness and living in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, battered women's shelters, and a variety of non-shelter locations. Every three years since 1991, Wilder Research has conducted a statewide survey of people who are homeless or living in temporary housing programs.
2008-04-01
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless;
Causes of homelessness are multiple and complex. Public focus often centers on personal problems, which can be contributing factors but do not alone cause homelessness.
Our flawed economic and political systems fail to pro- mote justice and equality. Institutionalized racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination create barriers to economic advancement. This fact sheet illustrates the tangible results of these larger issues, which include a dire shortage of affordable housing and healthcare, supportive services, and living-wage jobs.
2008-06-23
National Coalition for the Homeless;
Homelessness is often assumed to be an urban phenomenon because homeless people are more numerous, more geographically concentrated, and more visible in urban areas. However, people experience the same difficulties associated with homelessness and housing distress in America's small towns and rural areas as they do in urban areas. Some of what has been learned in recent years about the causes, consequences, and strategies for combating homelessness in rural areas is summarized in this document.
2008-06-23
National Coalition for the Homeless;
This fact sheet examines the relationship between work and homelessness, including the contribution of unemployment, underemployment, and low wages to homelessness. It also assesses the employment barriers faced by homeless people, and strategies for overcoming those barriers.
2002-01-01
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless;
The war in Afghanistan, and the resulting increase in the number of refugees and internally displaced persons, focuses our attention on homelessness at an international level. This policy paper represents an effort to examine homelessness created as a direct result of war, and to recommend ways to reduce conflict and prevent war.
2008-06-23
National Coalition for the Homeless;
Homelessness emerged as a national issue in the1870's (Kusmer, 2002). At that time in American history, African-Americans made up less than 10% of the population and although there were no national figures documenting the demography of the homeless population, some sources suggest that African-Americans represented a very small segment of the homeless population. As a matter of fact, in the 1950s and 1960s, the typical person experiencing homelessness was white, male, and in his 50s (Kusmer, 2002).
Since that time, however, the scope and demographic makeup of the problem have changed dramatically. Not only do families with children now comprise 41% of the homeless population (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2006), but 42% of the population is African American. The composition of the average homeless family is a single parent household headed by an African-American female (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2004).
2010-03-01
National Alliance to End Homelessness;
In 2007, there were 671,859 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. These people were counted in big cities and small towns across the country. Previously, little has been known (outside of anecdotal evidence) about how many people experience homelessness in urban, rural and suburban areas. For the first time, the Alliance examines the distribution of homelessness by geographic type in this report. This report is a culmination of a multi-part series examining the geography of homelessness. This examines the following major topics: Defining the Spectrum of HomelessnessHomelessness by Geographic CategoryPrevalence of HomelessnessUrban HomelessnessHomeless Assistance System - Bed Inventory
