Location of Homeless Assistance Programs
About half (49 percent) of all homeless assistance programs are found in central cities. Rural communities offer the next largest share of programs (32 percent), and suburban/urban fringe communities offer the smallest share of programs (19 percent) (figure 4.11). However, because central city programs serve more clients, on average, a larger share of program contacts happen in central cities (57 percent) than in suburban and rural areas (20 and 23 percent of all program contacts, respectively).3 Central city, suburban, and rural locations also vary considerably in terms of which programs report the most contacts. Food programs report the most contacts in both central cities and suburban areas (57 and 65 percent of program contacts in those areas, respectively), while in rural areas food program contacts comprise only 31 percent of program contacts (figure 4.12). The share of program contacts that occur in shelter/housing programs are similar for central city and suburban areas (23 and 21 percent, respectively), but are only 11 percent of contacts in rural areas. In contrast, contacts with "other" programs predominate in rural areas (50 percent of contacts), but make up only 16 percent of contacts in central cities and 11 percent of contacts in suburban areas.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||