homelessness
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What is homelessness?
Homelessness is the state of having no home or permanent residence, a visible social problem in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. The homeless often share poverty as a common challenge.
In 2005, the UN estimated 100 million people lacked permanent housing worldwide. In the U.S. in 2024, 771,480 people were homeless. This number included those in sheltered and unsheltered locations but did not reflect the total number of people who experience homelessness throughout the year.
Homelessness results from a combination of factors, including lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and physical or mental illness. People may become homeless after experiencing war, natural disasters, or personal hardships such as domestic abuse.
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What are some common reasons people become homeless?
Homelessness is a visible social problem resulting from various interconnected causes, primarily poverty. A major factor is the lack of affordable housing, influenced by unemployment due to recession or illness. Job loss can lead to temporary homelessness until new employment is secured.
Other causes include low-paying jobs unable to cover housing costs, and personal hardships such as domestic abuse, war, or natural disasters. Additional factors contributing to homelessness are drug abuse, mental illness, racial disparities, familial disputes, prison release and changing economic trends.
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How do people experiencing homelessness get their basic needs met?
People experiencing homelessness often rely on a combination of resources to meet their basic needs.
Government programs, like those spurred by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, offer essential services with a focus on emergency aid. Many rely on homeless shelters or transitional housing for at least part of the year.
Faith-based and community groups also play a vital role, providing both emergency and ongoing housing. Examples range from churches offering overnight shelter to the Catholic Worker Movement's houses of hospitality. Social services, delivered through statutory, voluntary, and private sectors, address needs that individuals can't fully meet on their own.
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What are some challenges faced by homeless individuals and families?
Homeless individuals and families face numerous challenges, with poverty being a primary factor. A major cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing, often compounded by unemployment, physical or mental illness, or rising living costs.
Homelessness increases the risk of acquiring communicable diseases due to lack of sanitation, healthcare, and other factors. The unhoused are also at higher risk for noncommunicable diseases, such as respiratory and cardiac illnesses, and major mental illnesses. Moreover, homeless individuals are often involved in petty crimes and are also vulnerable to violent acts.
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How can communities help prevent and address homelessness?
Communities can help prevent and address homelessness through initiatives like Housing First policies, which prioritize providing permanent shelter without preconditions. Other solutions include utilizing tiny houses and abandoned buildings. Faith-based and community groups have a history of offering both emergency and long-term housing. Additionally, resident-controlled housing models, such as nonprofit housing cooperatives, can enable low-income individuals to share resources to obtain housing. Addressing homelessness may involve government, non-governmental organizations, and individual efforts.
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What are some long-term solutions to homelessness that have worked in different places?
Long-term solutions to homelessness include the "Housing First" policy, which prioritizes providing permanent shelter without preconditions like sobriety or mandatory treatment. This approach gives people autonomy and stability, enabling them to address issues such as employment, healthcare, and family care.
"Housing First" has proven especially effective for veterans and individuals with substance abuse, mental health challenges, and chronic illnesses. Studies show that while Housing First policies cost around $16,479 per person annually, the average benefit is $18,247, outweighing the costs. This approach reduces costs for emergency services, health care, and incarceration.
Alternative solutions involve mental health and addiction funding, designated tent locations, expanded shelters, and involuntary commitment to mental health institutions.
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homelessness, the state of having no home or permanent place of residence.
Few social problems are as visible as the plight of homeless people. Once almost invisible and easily ignored, homeless people are now a common sight in cities, suburbs, and even some rural areas. There are men who roam the streets carrying what is left of their possessions in shopping bags or grocery carts. There are women curled up on benches, in stairwells, or under bridges. There are families, typically mothers and children, scrounging for food and looking for shelter. Homelessness takes many forms, but most homeless people have one thing in common: poverty.
Scope and causes
Homelessness exists in every country of the world. Because of a lack of reliable statistics, it is impossible to measure homelessness with great accuracy. In 2005 the United Nations (UN) estimated that approximately 100 million people worldwide did not have a permanent place to live. In the United States, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issues a report on homelessness in the country each year. Its report for 2019 found that more than 567,000 people were homeless on a single night in January of that year. That figure does not give a complete picture of the extent of homelessness in the country, however, because the homeless population is constantly shifting. The number of people who experience homelessness at some time during the course of a year is much greater than the number of people who are homeless on a given night. For example, HUD found that in 2016 more than 1.4 million Americans relied on a homeless shelter or transitional housing for at least part of the year. The statistics cited in the remainder of this article will refer to populations who were homeless on a given night, not to those who were homeless at some time during the course of a year.
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Homelessness has a number of causes, many of which are closely related. One major cause is a lack of affordable housing. Some people cannot afford rent or mortgage payments because they are unemployed. They may be unable to find work because of a recession or because of physical or mental illness. The loss of a job can cause some families to join the ranks of the homeless for a period of days, weeks, or months until another job is found. Other homeless people have jobs but do not make enough money to pay for housing, sometimes because the cost of living in their neighbourhood has risen. People may also slip into homelessness after living through war, natural disasters, or a personal hardship, such as domestic abuse.
Homelessness in the United States
The 2019 HUD report found that nearly half of those experiencing homelessness lived in one of three states: California, New York, and Florida. They were concentrated in urban areas, particularly in the largest cities. New York City and Los Angeles alone accounted for almost one-fourth of the country’s homeless population.
The HUD report described the homeless as being either sheltered or unsheltered. Sheltered homeless people spend the night in emergency shelters or in transitional, or temporary, housing. Unsheltered homeless people sleep on the streets, in cars, in abandoned buildings, or in other places not intended for human habitation. The report found that nearly two-thirds of the homeless in the United States were sheltered, the rest being unsheltered.
More than two-thirds of the homeless in 2019 were individuals living alone. The rest were families with children. Seven out of ten homeless individuals were men. Some groups in the United States experience homelessness at much higher rates than others. For example, in 2019, 40 percent of homeless people were African Americans, though they made up only 13 percent of the country’s population overall. Veterans have also suffered high rates of homelessness, constituting 8 percent of all homeless adults in 2019.
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Helping the homeless
The United Nations has defined access to housing as a human right. Therefore, it considers homelessness to be a human rights violation caused by unjust inequalities in income and wealth. The UN has called on governments throughout the world to do more to combat the problem.
Government responses to homelessness have varied. England passed a law in 1977 that required local authorities to house the homeless. However, the Homeless Persons Act promised assistance only to homeless people who were considered a “priority.” This meant that homeless families with children often received help while homeless individuals were turned away. A new law passed in 2017 required local councils to house all of the homeless regardless of their priority status.
In the United States, the first major law to address homelessness was the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. It provided basic services for the homeless, with an emphasis on emergency services. From the early 2000s the government focused on finding transitional or permanent housing for the homeless. It also funded programs aimed at preventing homelessness among youth. In addition to federal efforts, local governments and private groups have played a vital role in funding and running programs to help homeless people.