Where Homeless Clients Were Living
Even within the week documented by this study, homeless clients did not stay in one place. On the day of their interview and the seven days preceding it, many clients slept or rested in a number of different places. These could include places not meant for human habitation; emergency or transitional shelters; or temporary arrangements such as a house, apartment, or room in which someone is allowed to stay on a temporary basis. Thirty-two percent of homeless clients slept or rested in places not meant for human habitation (designated "streets" in figure 2.13), including transportation depots, commercial spaces, cars or other vehicles, abandoned buildings, outdoor locations, and other venues of similar type. Thus just under one-third of homeless clients would have been found during a typical week's time using such places for sleep. Homeless shelters are the most common type of location where homeless clients may be found. More than twice as many homeless clients (73 percent) slept in one or more of a variety of shelters during the eight-day period being examined as slept in places not meant for human habitation during the same period. Some, of course, slept in both types of venue. Shelters take many forms, including emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, and vouchers for emergency housing (designated "shelters" in figure 2.13).
Source: Urban Institute analysis of weighted 1996 NSHAPC client data. In addition, figure 2.13 shows that 54 percent of homeless clients slept or rested in one or more temporary accommodations,18 including a friend's or relative's place, their own place, a hotel or motel room they paid for themselves, or a permanent housing program for formerly homeless people (designated "temporary accommodations" in figure 2.13). To understand how extremely transient homeless clients are, it is important to examine the overlap in these categories. Six percent of homeless clients had slept or rested in all three venues during the eight-day period. At the other extreme, 7 percent had stayed only on the streets, 34 percent had stayed only in shelters, 6 percent had stayed only in temporary housing. The overlap is greatest for shelters and temporary accommodations, with 34 percent of homeless clients using both during the eight-day period. By contrast, the overlap between streets and shelters is quite low, with only 11 percent of homeless clients staying in both. Characteristics of Clients Using Different Housing and Other Services People staying in the different venues displayed in figure 2.13 are quite different from each other on a number of dimensions of importance to planners, service providers, and others offering assistance to homeless clients. To understand these differences, table 2.5 presents some basic descriptive information for clients who slept on the streets on the day of the interview and/or the previous seven days, and clients who during the same time period stayed in a shelter, used a soup kitchen, or used other types of homeless assistance programs. These groups are not mutually exclusive; many clients fall into more than one of them, and some clients could be included in all four. Men are a similar proportion of clients who slept in the streets and those who used a soup kitchen during the last eight days (86 and 85 percent, respectively) and are more likely to be found in those venues than in shelters or other programs (where they comprise 65 and 67 percent of users). Few significant racial/ethnic differences exist between the four venues. Shelter stayers are more likely to be in a first homeless episode lasting six months or less (22 percent) than is true for any other group. Table 2.5 also reports the prevalence of several subgroups within the four service use patterns. Relatively few survey clients in any venue are youth ages 24 and younger. Clients in homeless families are a larger proportion of shelter users (16 percent) and users of other programs (14 percent) than they are of street stayers (3 percent) or users of soup kitchens (6 percent). Persons reporting HIV/AIDS are a very small proportion (2 to 5 percent) in every venue. More than half of clients in each venue have not done any work for pay in the last 30 days. Street stayers and users of other programs are less likely than shelter stayers to have done any paid work, and users of other programs are also less likely than soup kitchen users to have worked for pay during the past month. The presence of any alcohol, drug, and/or mental health problems is highest among street stayers and those who used other programs (75 and 74 percent, respectively). Rates are lower but still considerable among homeless clients using shelters and soup kitchens (63 and 66 percent, respectively). Problems with drug use are lowest among shelter stayers (23 percent), and do not differ among clients using the other venues (31 to 35 percent). Both street stayers (45 percent) and other program users (43 percent) are more likely to report alcohol use problems than are shelter stayers (35 percent). The only significant difference by venue for mental health problems is that a higher proportion of users of other programs (46 percent) report such problems compared to those who stayed in a shelter (38 percent) or those who used a soup kitchen (37 percent). These findings with respect to shelter and other program venues probably reflect the differing influences of program goals and rules. Many transitional housing programs are designed explicitly for clients with these problems, but many emergency shelters have rules that explicitly or effectively exclude clients with these problems, leaving the streets as their only alternative. Users of both types of programs are combined in the shelter user category. Further, some "other programs," especially outreach programs, drop-in centers, and permanent housing programs are explicitly designed to reach and serve clients with alcohol, drug, and/or mental health problems.19
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