Homelessness

Why Are People Homeless?

People become homeless for a variety of reasons. Typically a combination of factors contributes to a person or family becoming homeless. A shortage of affordable housing combined with personal vulnerabilities and lack of strong family or social supports can result in crisis. Homelessness is not usually a “choice” for the majority of people but more often a feeling of a lack of choices or hope for a better situation.

Want to learn more about homelessness issues? Read on or visit the National Alliance to End Homelessness website, a great resource for up-to-the-moment research and news on homelessness issues.

Two trends are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the past 20-25 years: a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty. Below is an overview of current poverty and housing statistics, as well as additional factors contributing to homelessness:

*Foreclosure: Recently, foreclosures have increased the number of people who experience homelessness. The National Coalition for the Homeless released an entire report discussing the relationship between foreclosure and homelessness. The report found that there was a 32% jump in the number of foreclosures between April 2008 and April 2009. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that 40 percent of families facing eviction due to foreclosure are renters and 7 million households living on very low incomes  are at risk of foreclosure.

*Poverty: Homeless people are frequently from poverty households. They have limited education and low employment skills. They are unable to pay for housing, food, child care, health care and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income that must be dropped. If you are poor, you are essentially an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.

*Eroding Work Opportunities: With unemployment rates remaining high, jobs are hard to find in the current economy. Even if people can find work, this does not automatically provide an escape from poverty. Stagnant or falling incomes and less secure jobs which offer fewer benefits often lead to homelessness. In 2007, a survey performed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that 17.4% of homeless adults in families were employed while 13% of homeless single adults or unaccompanied youth were employed.

*Decline in Public Assistance: The declining value and availability of public assistance is another source of increasing poverty and homelessness. In most states, the “old” welfare system has not yet been replaced with an alternative that enables families and individuals to obtain above-poverty employment and to sustain themselves when work is not available or possible.

*Housing: The status of housing for low-income people in the United States is grim. A lack of affordable housing and the inadequacy of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and to homelessness. In Indiana, a worker would need to earn approximately $11.25 an hour to reasonably afford a one-bedroom apartment and $13.70 for a two-bedroom apartment (“Out of Reach,” National Low Income Housing Coalition 2011)

Additional factors that may contribute to a person or family becoming homeless include:

*Lack of Affordable Health Care: For families and individuals struggling to pay the rent, a serious illness or disability can start a downward spiral into homelessness, beginning with a lost job, depletion of savings to pay for care, and eventual eviction.

*Domestic Violence: Battered women who live in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness. An estimated of 25%of homeless people in Indianapolis are victims of domestic violence.

*Mental Illness: On a given night in January 2010, approximately 26% of the sheltered homeless population suffered from a severe mental illness. (“2010 AHAR Report” HUD)

*Chemical Dependency: Many people who are addicted to alcohol and drugs never become homeless; but people who are poor and addicted are clearly at an increased risk of homelessness.

*AIDS and Other Related Diseases: These affect a small but growing portion of the homeless. The special counts conducted in 1990 and 1993 by Midtown Mental health Center’s Homeless Medical Team found that 5% of the homeless on any given night suffered from AIDS or related diseases.

Source: National Coalition for the Homeless July 2009