Pit Presentation

Front 1

Hi my name is Joanna Peters and I will be talking about homeless families, including chronically homeless and young families. The definition of a family is 2 or more people. Out of the 950 surveys collected, 179 were families. These 179 families make up 43% of the total homeless population.

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Front 2

As you can see most homeless families are composed of two to three people. 40% of families have just two people in them, however; only 3% of these families are couples without kids. The majority of families are run by single-parents, almost always Hispanic women. As the chart shows, few families had 6 or more people. The largest family surveyed was a family of 9.

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Front 3

Most parents were racial minorities and single parents. 75% of homeless parents were racial minorities, and over half of all these parents were Hispanic. 108 families (or 60%) were headed by women and are likely to be single parents.

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Front 4

Looking at the reason for homelessness among these families, loss of income was the most common response across all races. Other leading causes of homelessness included; family issues, eviction, and other. Responses for other included health issues, relocating, and theft. Overall, White and Hispanic parents were the only ones to report substance abuse, and mental health as causes of homelessness.

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Hispanic parents were most likely to have become homeless for reasons of domestic violence and also the only race to report teen pregnancy as a cause of homelessness. Looking more closely at this chart we can see that black parents showed significantly lower numbers than White and Hispanic parents for all categories excluding loss of income and family issues, which they led by slight margin.

Front 5

Now I will be focusing on chronically homeless families. Of the 179 families, 23 were chronically homeless. The typical chronically homeless family was a racial minority single mother with one child. 17 out of these 23 families were women, 15 of which were single mothers. Almost 90% of parents had one child or less. 19 of the 23 families were racial minorities, 11 were Black parents and 8 were Hispanic parents.

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Front 6

Loss of income was the cause of homelessness for almost 50% of all families regardless of type. Looking at the cause of homelessness among chronically homeless and homeless families loss of income is again the most prevalent response, accounting for almost 50% of all homeless families.

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Family issues and eviction were again near the top, but domestic violence and other switched places. Domestic violence accounted for 22% of chronically homeless compared to 14% of homeless families. They were also more likely to list substance abuse and mental health than average families.

Front 7

Next I will focus on young families. Young families are families with parents between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. 30 of the 179 families fit into this category. The typical young family was a Hispanic mother with one child. 87% of young families were Hispanic, 27 out of these 30 families were mothers, and 60% had one child.

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There was an almost equal distribution of young parents that either went to school or worked. Over half of those that worked, worked for 30 or more hours a week. None of these young families were also chronically homeless families, in fact, only 2 families disclosed being homeless 4 or more times within the past three years.

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Loss of income was the highest reported reason for homelessness among all families regardless of age. Looking at the cause of homelessness among young families versus all families there are some interesting trends. Young families were more likely to be homeless because of family issues, eviction, and being released from prison, hospital, or rehab when compared to all families.

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Though the percentage of families who are homeless because of teen pregnancy is low with only 4 families, all of these four are young Hispanic families. These families reported lower rates of substance abuse and mental health issues. Additionally, no young families admitted to using drugs, drinking alcohol daily, having AIDS, or being HIV positive.

Front 9

Finally, I will discuss the services requested by these families. I have created a table, separated by the different types of families I have discussed, and organized by ranking order, 1 being the most requested. It’s important to realize that there were many services among chronically homeless and young families that were tied. It is clear that housing is a huge priority for all homeless families. The top requests among all three types of families were affordable housing (with 70%), permanent housing (with practically 60%), and traditional housing with almost 50% of all families.

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Additionally, as you can see, families frequently desired job training and child care. Comparing chronically homeless with all other families there are some differences in services requested. Over 50% of chronically homeless families were highly concerned with emergency shelter and legal assistance. In addition, they demonstrated a need for GED and English classes, along with social security, substance abuse help, and veteran benefits. There was also a trend among services which young families requested more than others. Young families were more likely to want dental services, and clothing.