Homelessness Prevention and Intervention Network of NW Central Indiana
"Linking for a Common Goal"
Who is Homeless?
Families
Families experiencing homelessness are similar to other, housed families living in poverty. In fact, many poor families – homeless or not – share similar characteristics: they are usually headed by a single woman with limited education, are usually young, and have high rates of domestic violence and mental illness. Some families living in poverty, however, fall into homelessness, usually due to some unforeseen financial challenge, such as a death in the family, a lost job, or an unexpected bill, creating a situation where the family cannot maintain housing.
Youth
Homeless youth are individuals under the age of eighteen who lack parental, foster, or institutional care. These young people are sometimes referred to as "unaccompanied" youth. 1.6 to 1.7 million people under 18 will experience homelessness each year.
Veterans
Veterans often become homeless due to war-related disability. For a variety of reasons – physical disability, mental anguish, post-traumatic stress, etc. – many veterans find difficulty readjusting to civilian life. This inability can translate into unsafe behaviors, including addiction, abuse, and violence. These difficulties, coupled with the unsafe behaviors, can lead to homelessness. Providing prevention measure, including job placement services, medical services, housing assistance, and the like, can mitigate the risk of veterans experiencing homelessness.
Chronic Homelessness
Chronic homelessness is often the public face of homelessness. "Chronic" has a specific definition, involving either long-term and/or repeated bouts of homelessness coupled with disability (physical or mental). People experiencing chronic homelessness often end up living in shelters and consume a plurality of the homeless assistance system’s resources.
By the numbers:
- There are 636,017 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States.
- Of that number, 236,181are people in families, and 399,836are individuals.
- 17 percent of the homeless population is considered "chronically homeless," and
- 11 percent of the homeless population - 67,495 - are veterans.
More than 1.59 million people spent at least 1 night in an emergency shelter or transitional housing
program during the 2010 AHAR reporting period, a 2.2 percent increase from 2009. Most users of
homeless shelters used only emergency shelter (78.7 percent), while 17 percent used only transitional
housing, and less than 5 percent used both emergency shelter and transitional housing during the reporting period
The National Alliance to End Homelessness has generated a report with homelessness date in the U.S during the period of 2009-2011.
914 South Street Lafayette, IN 47905 Phone: 765-742-9077 E:mail info@hpinregion4.org
Become a member
of our group!
