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Count Sets Baseline to Monitor Homelessness Trend
A "Homelessness Counts" report published earlier this month by the National Alliance to End Homelessness lays the groundwork for measuring efforts to end homelessness by establishing a baseline number of people without homes to monitor future trends in addressing this national problem.
With the caveat that its counts “are not perfect and have numerous limitations, but they are the best available at this time,” the alliance estimated that there were 744,313 people experiencing homelessness in January 2005.
Taking a closer look at that population:
- Fifty-six percent of the homeless people in the count were living in shelters and transitional housing, and 44% were unsheltered.
- Fifty-nine percent of the homeless people counted were single adults and 41% were persons living in families.
- A total of 98,452 homeless families were counted.
- Twenty-three percent of homeless people were reported as chronically homeless, which the Department of Housing and Urban Development defines as homelessness for extended periods or repeatedly by persons having a disability.
- A number of states had high rates of homelessness, including Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington. In addition, the rate of homelessness was high in Washington, D.C.
The alliance said that there is some reason for optimism that local and national efforts across the country to end homelessness will be successful.
“During the past five years, community approaches to homelessness have changed and thousands of people are working toward the shared goal of ending homelessness,” according to the alliance. “Measuring their success or failure will depend on collecting and analyzing outcome data, monitoring changes in homelessness populations and understanding which interventions lead to different outcomes.”
The alliance said that the data it collected represents the first effort to count the nation’s homeless population in 10 years, and in the future it hopes to be able to make a report on homelessness annually.
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