A substantial majority of the cities reported that families were the fastest growing component of the homeless population.
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Conference of Mayors in 25 representative cities in each of the past 2 years identified no city in which the numbers were falling most cities reported annual increases of 15 to 50 percent (U. Whatever the absolute numbers, the number of homeless people has grown appreciably in recent years. At the high end are advocates' estimates of more than 2 million (Hombs and Snyder, 1982). Department of Housing and Urban Development (1984) estimate of 200,000 to 300,000. The range of estimates of the number of homeless people is wide ( Table 1-1). ( Appendix B of this report contains a detailed analysis of the three most common methods of counting homeless people and the technical strengths and weaknesses of each.) For all these reasons, the various studies cannot be easily compared or generalized. For example, samples are generally small and may not be generalizable to other locales, data are often collected from single sites, samples often are not systematically drawn, measures and definitions of homelessness are inconsistent, and the rural population is virtually unidentified. Studies that have attempted to count homeless people have been subject to severe criticism. Not only do people move in and out of homelessness but the methodological problems involved in counting people without a fixed residence are formidable. Conventional methods of enumerating populations, such as the census, are based upon counting people where they live. In the course of this discussion the issues relating to the prevalence of health and mental health problems inevitably arise, but these are reviewed in greater detail in Chapter 3, Health Problems of Homeless People.Įven within the framework of a relatively straightforward definition, there is considerable uncertainty about the number of people who are homeless at any given time in the United States. The chapter continues by examining the socio-demographic characteristic s of homeless people, with emphasis on adult individuals, families and children, runaway and throwaway youths, 1 the elderly, and people in rural areas.
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It begins by defining homelessness, assessing methodologies used to count homeless people, and reviewing recent scholarly literature on the subject.
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This chapter briefly describes homelessness in the United States. Growing public awareness of homelessness is also connected to changes in the geographic dispersion of homeless people, who are becoming more visible in neighborhoods and communities that would not have imagined their presence in the past.
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Not only has the number of homeless people increased dramatically within the last several years but the composition of the homeless population has also changed appreciably during that period: For example, middle-aged men make up a shrinking fraction of all homeless people, and families with young children are the fastest growing component of the homeless population (U.S. In the past decade, however, the problem of homelessness has increasingly captured public attention. As economic circumstances and demographic forces have fluctuated, so have the size and composition of the homeless population, although relatively permanent skid rows where homeless people congregate have long been a feature of many large cities. There have always been homeless people in the United States.