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Homelessness Among Families is Increasing!
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
Over the past year more than 3 million Americans were homeless. A scary thing is that a lot more people are at risk of becoming homeless.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted a study in 2001 which showed that nearly 5 million low-income
American households were paying more than a half of their income on rent and thus were a great risk of becoming
homeless. A great number of circumstances like missed paycheck, health problems or unpaid bills can force these families
into homeless. One of the main reasons for homelessness is obviously deficit of housing that poor families can afford.
National Law Center has special projects that are aimed to increase a number of affordable housing. NLCHP has helped to
convert federal property worth more than $100 million into housing, job training centers, and child care facilities for
homeless people. These places help thousands of homeless people every year. NLCHP also helps to Increase Housing Through
Enforcement of Civil Rights by supporting and advocacy consultations. NLCHP assists local groups to battle Not-In-My-Back-Yard
opposition to seting of housing for homeless people. NLCHP has issued two reports documenting NIMBY impact on housing and
services for homeless people, talking about Fair Housing Act protections for
seting of such facilities, and
suggesting practical actions to reduce NIMBY resistance. Since the level of income has a great effect on risk
becoming homeless, the Law Center has developed Income Project that is focused on providing Supplemental Security
Income, food stamps, welfare, and some other benefits for homeless people. NLCHP runs an Earned Income Tax Credit
campaign with the help of which homeless workers can find out more about the tax credit and how to receive it,
since tax credit is a great increase in income. The Law Center also helps homeless people wit mental disabilities
to receive Mental Illness Disability Benefits. The Law Center implements effective actions according to the McKinney-Vento Act,
the law that provides a great number of educational rights to homeless children. NLCHP also supports parents, guardians and
educators all over the country to make sure that homeless children have an access to public schools, so they can get
proper education. The Center makes great effort to enforce different laws and policies that would protect homeless
children and teens. Another very important aspect for homeless people is civil rights. The NLCHP does not leave this
aspect aside. It fights against the laws that prohibit homeless people conducting life-sustaining activities in public places,
even if there are no private spaces provided for homeless to conduct these activities. For instance, laws do not allow sleeping
in public places even if a person does not have a home where to sleep. Some laws might not allow eating in public places. To
help out homeless people regarding this issue, the Law Center has Civil Rights Project that advocates against the laws that I
have mentioned above. On March 4, 2005 in Washington D.C. the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, one of two
organizations in the inter-American structure for the encouragement and protection of human rights, had a inquiry to evaluate
fulfillment with the basic human right to housing by the largest Western nations. It is crucially important that NLCHP updates
and innovates its programs regularly. For example, at the end of January 2005 the Center presented Ten-Year Plan to End
Homelessness to D.C. City Council. The D.C. plan like many others is mainly focused on chronically homeless. However, it
should also focus on homeless families and children. In order to end homelessness, according to NLCHP, a number of policies
have to be implemented to eliminate the basic causes of this unwanted by any society issue. The Law Center’s main goal is
to increase the number of affordable housing, raise incomes, so people can afford to pay rent and still have money left over,
and increase government assistance to homeless people.
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One of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population is families with children. A 2005 study revealed that of the counted
homeless population there were 98,452 homeless families, making up 41% of the entire homeless population
(Homelessness Counts, 2007). Research indicates that families, single mothers, and children
make up the largest group of people who are homeless in rural areas (Vissing, 1996). Approximately
924,000 children are homeless, and in 1995, 4.2% of children under the age of one year were homeless
(Urban Institute, 2000; Culhane & Metraux, 1999). Homeless families are most commonly headed by single mothers
in their late 20s with approximately two children (Rog & Buckner, 2007). Homeless families often double up
with other families. This causes them to be exempt from the federal definition of chronic homelessness,
which states that a chronically homeless person is one who is on the streets or in a shelter (The Annual
Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, 2007). Therefore, many homeless families are prevented
from receiving assistance. Recent evidence confirms that homelessness among families is increasing.
Requests for assisted housing by low-income families and individuals increased in 86 percent
of the cities during the past year. The same study found the requests increased by an average of 5%
in 2005 (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005). While the average number of emergency shelter beds for homeless
families with children increased by 8% in 2005, an average of 32% of requests for shelter by
homeless families were denied in 2005 due to lack of resources. Poverty and the lack of affordable
housing are the principal causes of family homelessness. While the number of poor people decreased
every year between 1993 and 2000, in recent years the number
and percentage of poor people has increased.
