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Nonetheless, the demographic groups that are overrepresented in the homeless population relative to the U.S. population as a whole are African Americans, adult males, single-person households, people age 31 to 50, and people with a disability. Veterans are also slightly overrepresented in the homeless population when compared to the overall U.S. population. African Americans. In 2008, African Americans comprised 41.7 percent of the homeless population, almost 3.5 times their share of the U.S. population. African Americans are disproportionately represented in the poverty population, but they are even more disproportionately represented in the homeless population. They represent a share of the homeless population 1.8 times higher than their share of the poverty population. The disproportionate representation of African Americans in the homeless population is related to urban concentrations of homelessness. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, about 53 percent of the African American population lives in principal cities compared to 23 percent of the white non–Hispanic population and 47 percent of the white Hispanic population. Adult males. Adult men were heavily overrepresented in the homeless population. More than three-fifths of homeless adults were men (64.0 percent) compared to 48.7 percent of the overall population and only 39.9 percent of the poverty population. The large proportion of adult men in the shelter system probably reflected several factors. Single men who are poor may be more vulnerable to homelessness because of large gaps in the Unemployment Insurance program and because the largest safety net programs, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Social Security, are for families or elderly people. The share of unemployed workers receiving unemployment insurance has declined in recent decades and is currently only 37 percent. 13 The sizable gap in unemployment insurance coverage may be particularly perilous for men because poor women are likely to be accompanied by children and thus eligible for TANF. Adult poor men also have higher rates of substance abuse than women, but substance abuse has not been a categorical eligibility criterion for SSI since 1996. Thus, some women may fall through one social safety net but be caught by another; men may miss them all. In addition, men are more likely than women to have institutional histories that are related to homelessness, including incarceration. And finally, relatives may feel a stronger need to give a temporary home to families with children than they do to single men. However, the share of sheltered homeless men reported in the AHAR may be artificially high. Some shelters have policies prohibiting men over a certain age from sleeping in family shelters, requiring men and teenage boys to stay at men’s shelters alone. As a result, some of 13 Stone, Chad, Robert Greenstein, and Martha Coven. 2007. Addressing Longstanding Gaps in Unemployment Insurance Coverage. Washington D.C.: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 26 Chapter 3: Sheltered Homeless People in 2008
the men who are being counted in the AHAR as unaccompanied individuals may be part of intact families that are housed elsewhere. 14 Also, the HMIS data presented here do not include adults served by domestic violence providers, most of whom are women. Single-person households. Two-thirds (67 percent) of the total sheltered population were in single-person households, nearly 2 times the proportion of these households in poverty and about 1.5 times the national proportion. As shown in Exhibit 3-1, most homeless people in singleperson households were men, and thus the reasons both single-person households and men are disproportionately represented in the sheltered homeless population are likely the same. People age 31 to 50. Two-fifths (40 percent) of the sheltered homeless population were between the ages of 31 to 50, compared to only 29 percent of the total U.S. population and 22 percent of the poverty population. Middle-aged people may be more likely to be homeless because substance abuse or mental illness issues become more acute during this life stage. If people have struggled for a while because of mental health, substance abuse, or financial issues, by age 30 or older they may have exhausted their alternatives for living with friends and family. The shelter system may be their last remaining option. People with disabilities. Among adults, 17.7 percent of the U.S. population had a disability whereas an estimated 42.8 percent of sheltered homeless adults had a disability. 15 A disability, particularly one relating to substance abuse or mental health issues, can make it difficult to work enough to afford housing. Indeed, the higher share of adults with disabilities in the poverty population (30.7 percent) relative to the U.S. population is an indication of this difficulty. People with disabilities are an even higher share of the homeless population than the poverty population, suggesting that disabled persons face additional difficulties in gaining access to permanent housing. People with disabilities may have difficulties searching for a unit or finding a landlord willing to rent to them. Their disability may make it less easy to accommodate them without adaptive supports. Also, the ability of SSI and SSDI to avert homelessness among persons with disabilities is uncertain. In 2009, the average monthly SSI payment was $504 16 (or about $6,048 annually) and 14 15 16 A study of patterns of homelessness among families in four communities—Houston TX, Washington DC, Kalamazoo MI, and upstate South Carolina—tracked people from their first entry into the homeless services system (based on HMIS data) for 18 months (30 months in DC) and found that many adults who were homeless as part of a family during part of the tracking period used shelters for individuals at other times during the tracking period. Brooke Spellman, Jill Khadduri, Brian Sokol, and Josh Leopold, Costs Associated with First-Time Homelessness for Families and Individuals. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, forthcoming 2009. HUD’s definition of disabling condition is broader than the definition used by the U.S. Census Bureau. See footnote 12 for more information. U.S. Social Security Administration Office of Retirement and Disability Policy. Monthly Statistical Snapshot, March 2009. Available at http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/quickfacts/stat_snapshot/. Chapter 3: Sheltered Homeless People in 2008 27
Page 3: The 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment
Page 7: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This 2008 Annual H
Page 11 and 12: Executive Summary The U.S. Departme
Page 13 and 14: One-Year Estimates of Sheltered Hom
Page 15 and 16: may suggest that communities have a
Page 17 and 18: Chapter 1 Introduction This report
Page 19 and 20: transitional housing) or unsheltere
Page 21: sheltered homeless people in numero
Page 24 and 25: substance abuse issues; veterans; u
Page 26 and 27: Exhibit 2-2: Point-in-Time Counts o
Page 28 and 29: Care). On a single night in January
Page 30 and 31: Exhibit 2-6: Percentage Change in t
Page 32 and 33: 2007, but was level between 2007 an
Page 34 and 35: 2.4 Estimates of Sheltered Homeless
Page 36 and 37: percent in 2007 to 14.4 percent in
Page 39 and 40: Chapter 3 Sheltered Homeless People
Page 41: Exhibit 3-2 Demographic Characteris
Page 45 and 46: Exhibit 3-3: Demographic Characteri
Page 47 and 48: Characteristics of Sheltered Person
Page 49 and 50: 3.2 Location of Homeless Service Us
Page 51 and 52: A comparison of living arrangements
Page 53 and 54: 2008, compared with 69 percent of p
Page 55: 3.4 Summary of All Sheltered Homele
Page 58 and 59: Changes in the patterns of becoming
Page 60 and 61: Exhibit 4-2: Change in the Geograph
Page 62 and 63: The increase in the share of person
Page 64 and 65: facility the night before. In 2008,
Page 66 and 67: Exhibit 4-8: Change in Previous Liv
Page 68 and 69: Exhibit 4-10: Lengths of Stay in Em
Page 70 and 71: least a month. Families experiencin
Page 72 and 73: program, or it could reflect greate
Page 74 and 75: While the 2008 data collection peri
Page 76 and 77: 614,042 beds (see Exhibit 5-1). 32
Page 78 and 79: housing inventory included nearly 1
Page 80 and 81: Exhibit 5-5: National Inventory of
Page 82 and 83: Exhibit 5-7: Distribution of Bed In
Page 84 and 85: Transitional Housing Compared to em
Page 86 and 87: housing beds during this period. It
Page 88 and 89: Exhibit 5-12: Average Daily Utiliza
Page 91 and 92: Chapter 6 Looking Ahead The 2008 AH
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Appendix A: List of 2008 AHAR Sampl
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Appendix A A-3
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Appendix A A-5
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Appendix A A-7
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Appendix A A-9
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Appendix A A-11
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Appendix A A-13
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Appendix A A-15
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B.1 Introduction This document summ
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Homeless Management Information Sys
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B.3 Sample Selection This section d
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area to account for the fact that t
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Selection of Non-Certainty Sample T
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In 2008, 22 new rural communities w
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Average daily bed utilization rate
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Exhibit B-4: Communities Participat
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Step 2: The raw data were adjusted
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site was not able to provide data,
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category. However, to aggregate the
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C1: Changes in Point-In-Time Estima
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C2: Point-In-Time Estimates from Ja
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Appendix C-3 C-6 Appendix C
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C-8 Appendix C
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C-10 Appendix C
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C-12 Appendix C
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C-14 Appendix C
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C-16 Appendix C
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Appendix D: Counts of Homeless Shel
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Appendix D-3: Seasonal Point-in-Tim
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Appendix D-4: Demographic Character
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Appendix D-9: Earlier Living Situat
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Appendix D-11: Earlier Living Situa
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Appendix D-13: Length of Stay in Tr
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