Homelessness By the Numbers

Raise your hand if you've ever seen a person who you thought was homeless. I can see that all hands are up!

I'll be 61 years old this week and when I was young, the situation was not as it is now. In my youth, the vast majority of people who were homeless were men. There were very few women and even less children who were homeless.

In the old days, we called those homeless men words like, "hobos" or worse. We envisioned them "riding the rails," jumping on and off railroad freight cars and living a life that they chose, free of cares and woes. At that time, the homeless life was romanticized and movies were made, such as "Emperor of the North" staring Lee Marvin, which depicted homeless men enjoying life to the fullest without any reflection on their possible responsibilities to society.

Today, this is not the picture of homelessness. In my experience, I have found:

• 40% of the people who are homeless are women and children. There are no happy movies about their lifestyles, in fact, barely anyone is talking about their plight. And, certainly, these women and children have not chosen to be homeless. As if things could not get worse, the number of women and children who are becoming homeless is increasing.
• 25% of today's homeless people are people who have served in war, generally the Vietnam War. I thought this number would be decreasing, but with the Iraqi War veterans returning with little or no care for their mental and physical health, it's going to remain at the 25% level for quite some time. The Department of Defense has found that 17% of returning Iraqi War veterans are returning with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD (formerly called "battle fatigue") is a condition that may exist for its victims from 30 to 40 years.
• 35% of the people I've found to be homeless today are men who have had a devastating negative experience of some kind.

Where has the free lifestyle of homelessness gone? I suggest that view that there was ever a free lifestyle that people chose to live by being homeless was a myth. It never happened. But, the myth provided a good storyline for movies.

What happened in sixty years? Who are homeless people? Why are they living outside? Why don't they have homes? Oh my God, what happened?

In 2007, the National Alliance to End Homelessness released their report, "Homelessness Counts" citing:

• 672,000 people were homeless each night in the United States (population over 300 million).
• 3.5 million people are homeless throughout the year in the United States.
• Nearly 160,000 people are homeless in the State of California (total population 36 million).

In their report, "2007 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count", the Los Angeles Housing Services Authority (LAHSA) found that in Los Angeles County (population over 10 million), California there are:

• Over 10,000 children and teens who are homeless every night.
• Nearly 74,000 homeless men, women and children each night in the County.
• Over 141,000 people experienced homelessness in Los Angeles over the course of 2006.

In "2006 Short-Term Housing Directory of Los Angeles County," Shelter Partnership determined that there are just over 17,000 shelter beds in all of the homeless shelters for the 74,000 people who are homeless every night. Obviously, people are living "outside" because there is no room in the "inn."

What are the causes of homelessness?

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