Many more homeless clients are parents than is indicated by the proportion who have at least one of their children with them. Among homeless women, 60 percent have children under age 18, but only 65 percent of them live with at least one of these children. Among homeless men, 41 percent have children under age 18, but only 7 percent of these fathers live with at least one of their own children.¹⁰ Looked at from the children's perspective, 28 percent of minor children of homeless parents live with that parent, while 72 percent do not.

Homeless families have, on average, two children. Members of these families comprise 34 percent of all homeless people using services. As this figure (34 percent) is quite different from the figure noted earlier—15 percent of homeless clients are heads of homeless families—some clarification is in order. The two figures illuminate a common confusion about the term "homeless family." Only 15 percent of homeless households contain an client and at least one minor child, which is a common definition of "family" used in the context of homelessness research. However, when one counts clients and children together, 34 percent are in families. Two-thirds of these are children.

Children in homeless families using services are fairly evenly divided between males (53 percent) and females (47 percent), which does not differ from American children generally (table 2.2). They are disproportionately younger than school age (ages 0 to 5) compared to all U.S. children (42 versus 34 percent).¹¹ Parents report that almost half (45 percent) of these children ages 3 to 5 attend preschool. In addition, almost all (93 per- cent) of school-age children (ages 6 to 17) are reported to attend school regularly.¹²

Homeless clients in families (table 2.1) and the children themselves (table 2.2) are similarly distributed among racial/ethnic groups. These similarities are due in large part to the fact that children's race/ethnicity was attributed from that of their parents, but also implies that the number of children homeless with their parent(s) does not differ systematically in relation to the parent's race or ethnicity.

NSHAPC parents' reports of their children's school attendance can be compared with data about school enrollment of U.S. children (table 2.2). Forty-five percent of the 3- to 5-year-old children accompanying homeless NSHAPC clients are reported to be attending preschool. Parents also say that 93 percent of their children ages 6 to 17 attend school regularly. The closest comparable figures for all U.S. children are for enrollment rather than for attendance. They indicate that 49 percent of 3- to 4-year-olds and 98 percent of 5- to 17-year-olds are enrolled in school.¹³ These figures are comparable to NSHAPC information about homeless children.

Homeless children live in households whose receipt of government benefits is quite similar to that of nonhomeless children in poor U.S. households. Seventy percent of children in homeless families receive food stamps, which does not differ from the 66 percent of poor U.S. children who do so. Nor does the proportion of both groups covered by Medicaid differ (73 percent of homeless and 69 percent of poor U.S. children). It is harder to tell whether differences exist between homeless and nonhomeless poor children in their family's receipt of cash assistance because the data are not reported in the same categories. Fifty-one percent of homeless children live in families receiving AFDC, and 12 percent live in families receiving SSI. The Bureau of the Census (1992, table E) reports that 55 percent of nonhomeless poor children live in households receiving cash assistance, which could be AFDC, SSI, General Assistance, or other means-tested cash benefits.

Combining homeless children with their homeless parent and with single homeless clients, table 2.3 shows how all homeless service users compare to the U.S. population in poverty on some basic demographic characteristics.¹⁴ All homeless service users include considerably more males than the overall American poverty population (65 versus 43 percent). They are less likely to be white (47 versus 67 percent) or Hispanic (11 versus 24 percent), and more likely to be black (42 versus 27 percent). They are also less likely to be children (24 versus 40 percent), less likely to be ages 55 and older (7 versus 15 percent), and more likely to be in their middle years (42 versus 19 percent are between the ages of 35 and 54).

The last issue of importance with respect to children of homeless clients is the question of where children are when they are not with their homeless parent. The answer is heavily dependent on the homeless clients' sex (figure 2.7). When the homeless client is male, his children who do not live with him are most likely to be with their (nonhomeless) mother (81 percent of male homeless clients' minor children). But only 23 percent of female homeless clients' minor children who do not live with their mother live with their father. The woman's own parents or other relatives are most likely to be caring for her children if they are not with her (46 percent of children of female homeless parents), and about one-fifth (19 percent of homeless women's minor children) are in foster care or group homes.

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