Population Focus
Some homeless assistance programs are open to anyone who wants to use them, while other programs are designed specifically to serve only certain types of people. Population focus may be defined in several different ways. One common way is by household type, including men by themselves, women by themselves, households with children, and youth by themselves. Other common ways are by the special population groups, such as veterans, youth, victims of domestic violence; or condition or service need, such as alcohol, drug, or mental health problems, or HIV/AIDS, that a program is specifically designed to help. NSHAPC program staff were asked to report each household type that their program serves. In another series of questions, program representatives described any specializations or particular focuses that their program might have. This section reports how programs describe the types of clients they serve on these different dimensions. Since many programs report serving more than one household type, and also report having a focus on more than one special population, condition, or service need, the statistics for each type of program usually sum to more than 100 percent. Household Type Figure 4.8 reports the types of households that programs serve. A very noticeable pattern is that food programs are the most inclusive of all household types, with 84 percent or more saying they serve men and women by themselves and both female-headed and other families with children. Housing programs are the most specialized. For instance, 43 percent serve two-parent families with children, 61 percent serve men by themselves, and 68 to 69 percent serve women by themselves and female-headed households with children. Of course, many serve more than one of these household types. These patterns may be due to program policy (i.e., the program will not take particular types of clients) or simply to the fact that few or no clients of a particular type come to the program for service. Nine out of ten health programs serve men and women by themselves, but only six in ten serve any families with children. Shelter and other housing programs are the least likely to expect unaccompanied youth to use their programs, but all of the other program types also do not expect to serve many of this group. Special Population or Special Need Respondents were asked whether their program had a particular focus on one or more special populations. These might include a population group, such as victims of domestic violence, runaway youth, and veterans; or special conditions or special needs, such as mental health problems (without alcohol and/or drug use), alcohol and/or drug use (without mental health problems), both alcohol/drug and mental health problems, and HIV/AIDS. Half of those naming any special focus named only one focus, 17 percent named two focuses, and 33 percent named three or more focuses. The most commonly named special focus was "other" (25 percent). About half (48 percent) of program representatives did not report any special focus; food programs were the most likely and health programs were the least likely to say they had no special focus. Figure 4.9 identifies special population groups reported as a program's focus, and figure 4.10 does the same for program focus with respect to condition or service need. Overall, figure 4.9 shows that one-third or fewer programs named a special population group as a focus. The group most frequently named by all types of programs is victims of domestic violence, followed by veterans (18 and 14 percent, respectively, of all programs, shown in the first bar in each cluster). There are some important variations by program type, with housing programs being the most likely to name victims of domestic violence as a special population focus (28 percent do so), and health programs being most likely to identify veterans as a special population focus (32 percent do so). No more than 10 percent of programs identify a special focus on youth, regardless of program type. Figure 4.10 shows the proportion of programs responding that they have a focus on serving clients with particular special needs. Overall, people with alcohol, drug, or mental health problems, alone or in combination, are a special focus for 17 to 19 percent of programs. Health programs are by far the most likely to report these focuses. Almost half of health programs say they have a special focus on clients with mental health problems only, and almost half report a special focus on clients with mental health problems plus accompanying alcohol and/or drug use. More than one-third of health programs have a special focus on persons who use alcohol or drugs, and slightly less than one-third of health programs have a special focus on clients with HIV/AIDS.
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