Facts on Homelessness
How do we define homelessness?
A person who is homeless does not have a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence. This person may be sleeping on the streets, with friends or family, in cars or abandoned buildings or in shelters.How many people are homeless in Philadelphia?
It is very difficult to accurately determine how many people are homeless. It is estimated that there are approximately 4,000 persons who are homeless on any given day in Philadelphia. This includes only those who are in shelters or on the streets. It does not include those who are in transitional housing, low-demand residences, or in substandard/unfit living conditions.In 2005, the City's Office of Emergency Shelter and Services served 14,986 homeless people (including both single adults and family members) through its emergency shelter system. Of this number, 9,468 were adults without children, 2,011 were heads of households, and 3,507 were children.
Approximately 20 percent of the single individuals and 13 percent of the families were "chronically homeless" (homeless for one year or longer or four episodes of homelessness in three years).
Who is homeless in Philadelphia?
Homelessness disproportionately affects persons of color, with over 80 percent African-American, about 15 percent White.Children in families constitute approximately a third of the shelter population on any given night. Persons under the age of 18 are the most common shelter users. xx percent of families entering shelter were single-parent households (86 percent of these were female-headed and 14 percent were male-headed).
Age distribution of single individuals in shelter was as follows:| Age | Percentage |
| 18-25 | 9 |
| 26-45 | 49 |
| 46-65 | 40 |
| 65+ | 3 |
| Race/Ethnicity | Percentage |
| African-American | 80 |
| Latino/a | 6 |
| White | 13 |
| Asian-American | >1 |
| Other | >3 |
What about the people on the streets?
Although the most visible segment of the homeless population are those persons living on the streets, they are at most 10 percent of the total homeless population.In 2005, the highest number of persons on the streets was 505 (August); the lowest was 176 (January). In 1997, evening counts of the street population in Philadelphia showed an all-time high of 824 persons on the streets in the summer and between 170 and 300 in the winter. During the summer, many shelters close, which forces people to live outside and during the winter, colder weather and "Code Blue" days bring more people into shelter. These counts do not include the almost uncountable number of persons living in obscure park areas, vehicles, or abandoned houses.
What causes homelessness?
- Poverty from a lack of good jobs and minimal government assistance
- Lack of affordable housing and inadequate housing assistance
- Lack of affordable health care
- Domestic violence
- Mental Illness
- Substance Abuse
How do we end homelessness?
- Develop effective solutions for those on the street including targeted
outreach and appropriate facilities and services, particularly for persons
with substance-abuse and mental-health problems.
-
Strengthen the system of shelter and services that enable homeless persons
to make the transition to stability and job readiness.
- Provide permanent solutions— jobs and housing—so that people
can break the cycle of homelessness and become stable and productive
citizens.
- Strengthen homelessness prevention programs so that no one ends up in shelters or on the streets. This includes reinvesting in economically vulnerable neighborhoods; improving the school system; making sure people have access to health care; and providing jobs at a living wage.
Where can I get more information?
Resources and Facts on Homelessness:
- Strategies
for Reducing Chronic Homelessness: A Comparison of Seven Cities' Approaches
- How
Did We Get Here?—An analysis of the emergence of homelessness in
Philadelphia
- Evaluation
of Project H.O.M.E.'s Effectiveness by Philadelphia Health Management
Corporation for the U.S. Department of Human Services
- Fact
sheets from the National Coalition for the Homeless on various aspects of
homelessness including "Why Are People Homeless?", "How Many People
Experience Homelessness?", and "Who Are the Homeless?"
- Criminalization
of Homelessness in the United States—a report by the National Coalition
for the Homeless (August 2003)
- Poverty in the United States—This presentation highlights the many hardships facing people and families living at or below the poverty line and, in this context, helps explain why homelessness results.
- What Will It Take To End Homelessness? By Martha Burt
- Baumohl, Jim, Ed. Homelessness in America, 1996, Oryz Press.
- Blau, Joel. The Visible Poor: Homelessness in the United States, 1992, Oxford University Press.
- Kozol, Jonathan. Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America, 1988, Random House.
