WASHINGTON, D.C., June 28, 2001—A new book on America's homeless, released today by the Urban Institute, argues strongly for shifting gears in the nation's approach to homelessness. Rather than only waiting for people to become homeless to serve them, the authors suggest moving toward a strategy that also prevents and eliminates homelessness among the nation's residents.
The Urban Institute Press book, Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing?, by Martha Burt, Laudan Aron, and Edgar Lee with Jesse Valente, paints the most comprehensive national picture to date of the nation's homeless populations. It offers policymakers and practitioners valuable information to guide them in developing programs that prevent first-time and repeat spells of homelessness as well as ameliorate the effects of homelessness.
"We know more now than we ever did about homelessness and how to reduce it," notes author and homelessness expert Burt. "It is time to use that information to develop a new approach to eliminating it, one based on subsidized housing and supportive services."
The authors conducted new analyses of data from the 1996 National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC). Over the past 15 years, the number of people with incomes at or below 50 percent of the federal poverty level whose circumstances are severe enough to cause homelessness has not diminished in any significant way, the authors report. This is the case despite the growth in homeless services and resources available to meet this population's needs. Currently, at least 800,000 adults and children are homeless at any given point in time, while at least 2.3 million experience it at least once in a year.
The book offers evidence that single people with serious disabling conditions have been able to leave homelessness with subsidized housing and supportive services. However, the authors argue that the service system has been slow to acknowledge that this group includes parents and their young children. About 25 percent of people who are homeless at any given time are children in homeless families; that share rises to more than one-third over a year's time.
"Homelessness in childhood is strongly associated with adult homelessness," warns Burt. "Thus, putting resources into preventing family homelessness appears to be a good investment."
The authors document other key risk factors associated with spells of homelessness—including chronic substance abuse, physical or mental health problems, childhood physical or sexual abuse, foster care, and previous incarceration—and discuss their policy implications. The book also describes characteristics of people who experience each of three patterns of homelessness: "crisis," or one or two short periods of homelessness; "episodic," or cycles of homelessness for varying lengths of time; and "chronic" homelessness, or residence in shelters or on the streets for many months or years.
Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing? by Martha Burt, Laudan K. Aron, and Edgar Lee, with Jesse Valente, is available from the Urban Institute Press (6" x 9", 363 pages, paperback, index, ISBN 0-87766-701-2, $29.50). To order, call (202) 261-5687 or toll-free 1-877-847-7377. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that examines the social, economic, and governance challenges facing the nation.
The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and education organization that examines the social, economic, and governance challenges facing the nation.
The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
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