Characteristics and Dynamics of Homeless Families with Children. Final Report

摘要

Homelessness among families has become a growing phenomenon. Beginning in the early 1980s, families with young children became one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population and now comprise 34 percent of the homeless population (i.e., 23% children and 11% adults) (Burt et al., 1999). In a given year, this means that 420,000 families, including 924,000 children, experience homelessness in the United States. These numbers reveal that, over the course of a year, approximately 1.8 percent of all families are homeless at least one day, including eight percent of all poor families. Further evidence that homelessness is a common experience for poor families comes from a national telephone survey that found 7.4 percent of U.S. adults in households with telephones had been literally homeless (i.e., sleeping in shelters, abandoned buildings, bus and train stations) at least once in their lifetime. Of those who had ever received public assistance (typically as part of families), 19.8 percent had been literally homeless at least once in their lifetime. Adding the category of doubling-up (i.e., families living with relatives or friends) to the definition of homelessness results in nearly one-third of the people (31.2%) who had ever received public assistance reporting being homeless at least once in their lifetime (Link et al., 1994).