Average age of a homeless person…
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 13:15:47 -0700
From: radtimes
Subject: In the world’s richest nation…
>>The average age of a homeless person today is 9 years old <<
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http://stlouis.missouri.org/5yearstrategy/background/homeless.html
The City of St. Louis has a declining population of approximately 356,000
residents and it is a community of families (56% of persons in family
households). Twenty-four percent (24%) of city residents live in poverty.
Seventeen percent (17%) of its population reside in female-headed households
and 65% of its female-headed households with children under age 5, live in
poverty. St. Louis is 51% White and 48% African-American. African-Americans
25 years and older have educational levels beneath that of the general
population, have higher levels of unemployment and under employment and are
more apt to be long term welfare dependents.
National statistics on homelessness indicate that families comprise the
fastest growing group of homeless persons across America today, and that the
typical homeless family is composed of a single mother, about 30 years of
age with between 2 and 3 children averaging 5 years in age (Ten Cities
1997-1998, A Snapshot of Family Homelessness Across America, Homes for the
Homeless & the Institute for Children and Poverty). The average age of a
homeless person today is 9 years old and in St. Louis up to 5,500 kids are
living on the streets, in shelters, with relatives or friends or in
dangerous, uninhabitable places (Rainbow Days, Inc. 1993). Homelessness
today is both a family and children’s issue. Family homelessness continues
to be one of the most misunderstood public policy issues today, in large
part due to the scarcity of quantitative data. The City of St. Louis is also
struggling with the issue of quantitative data on homelessness.
National statistics profile the typical homeless parent as:
Young, unmarried African-American female with two or three young children,
who grew up in poverty;
Experienced or witnessed domestic violence at some point in her life;
Has at least one child suffering from a chronic health problem;
Never completed high school, often dropping out because of pregnancy;
Lived with parents, with a partner, or doubled-up prior to becoming
homeless;
Left her last residence because of overcrowding, disagreement or domestic
violence;
Is unemployed due to lack of child care, a lack of work skills or an
inability to find a job, and
Is entirely dependent on public assistance to support herself and her
family,
(Homeless Families Today: Our Challenge Tomorrow; A Report of Homes for the
Homeless and Columbia University SIPA).
By all accounts, this profile closely mirrors homeless families in the City
of St. Louis.
According to the 1998 Annual Report on Homelessness developed by the
Catholic Charities Housing Resource Center, some 51,300 household members
received services via the Emergency Shelter Hotline resulting in calls from
some 3,383 families in the City of St. Louis.
Yet, there are numerous other subpopulations of homeless in St. Louis. The
Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 3000 veterans in the St. Louis
area are homeless and that an additional 5,000-6,000 are at-risk of
homelessness. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
up to one-third of the adult homeless population suffers from mental
illnesses. Further, the Federal Plan to Break the Cycle of Homelessness
states that at least one half of the adult homeless population has a current
or past substance abuse problem. The 1996 Missouri Association of Social
Welfare (MASW) Point-in-Time Study reveals that 12% of the homeless
population of Missouri are dually diagnosed with mental illnesses and
substance abuse.
The Missouri Institute of Mental Health funded study, “Homelessness and HIV
Risk for Emergency Shelters in St. Louis City” (1992) concludes that
substance abuse disorders are common among emergency shelter residents and
that 2 in 5 participants in the study had either alcohol or substance abuse
disorders. The study further concluded that mental disorders were common,
abuse experiences were common and nearly one half of the participants had
experienced violence. Not surprisingly, in its summary and conclusion, the
study found that many persons staying in emergency shelter are at risk for
exposure to HIV.
Although rarely included in standard studies on homelessness, a substantial
population of young adults and adolescents are homeless nationally as well
as in St. Louis. While we do not have accurate numbers for this population,
our reasonable best estimate is between 1,500-2,500 on any given night.
[cont’d on site]
