Being on the streets in 99% of the cases is a result of their choices
https://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/health-care/homelessness-u-s-trends-demographics/
There were 610,042 homeless persons counted
There were 57,849
homeless veterans recorded in 2013, and 40% were unsheltered
There were 46,924 unaccompanied homeless children and youth on a single night. Most (87% or 40,727) were youth between the ages of 18 and 24, and 13% (or 6,197) were children under the age of 18. Half of unaccompanied children and youth (23,461 or 50%) were unsheltered
https://endhomelessness.org/homeles...ssness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-2020/
National Alliance To End Homelessness
Many Americans
live in poverty, amounting to 38.1 million people or 11.8 percent of the U.S. population. They struggle to afford necessities such as housing.
In 2018, 6.5 million Americans experienced severe housing cost burden, which means they spent more than 50 percent of their income on housing.
Chronically homeless individuals are disabled and have experienced long-term and/or repeated episodes of homelessness. They are currently 17 percent of the population. Veterans, who are 7 percent of people experiencing homelessness, are prioritized due to their service to our country. And unaccompanied youth, who represent 6 percent of the population, are a vulnerable age group consisting of those under 25 years old.
http://nationalhomeless.org/about-homelessness/
National Coalition for the Homeless
Poverty
Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income that must be dropped. If you are poor, you are essentially an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the national poverty rate in 2016 was 12.7%. There were 40.6 million people in poverty. While the poverty rate has been slowly declining since 2014, a couple of factors account for continuing poverty:
- Lack of Employment Opportunities – With unemployment rates remaining high, jobs are hard to find in the current economy. Even if people can find work, this does not automatically provide an escape from poverty.
- Decline in Available Public Assistance – The declining value and availability of public assistance is another source of increasing poverty and homelessness and many families leaving welfare struggle to get medical care, food, and housing as a result of loss of benefits, low wages, and unstable employment. Additionally, most states have not replaced the old welfare system with an alternative that enables families and individuals to obtain above-poverty employment and to sustain themselves when work is not available or possible.
Other major factors, which can contribute to homelessness, include:
- Lack of Affordable Health Care – For families and individuals struggling to pay the rent, a serious illness or disability can start a downward spiral into homelessness, beginning with a lost job, depletion of savings to pay for care, and eventual eviction.
- Domestic Violence – Battered women who live in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness. In addition, 50% of the cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005).
- Mental Illness – Approximately 16% of the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005).
- Addiction – The relationship between addiction and homelessness is complex and controversial. Many people who are addicted to alcohol and drugs never become homeless, but people who are poor and addicted are clearly at increased risk of homelessness.
Housing and Urban Development’s Point-in-Time Count, 2016:
- HUD found 549,928 individuals to be homeless on a single night in January 2016. Most homeless persons (65%) are individuals while 35% of homeless persons are in family households.
- The number of families experiencing homelessness has increased significantly from past years. For example, in 2013 only 15% of homeless persons were in family households.
- 31% of all homeless people were youths under the age of 24.
- Close to 40,000 veterans were homeless on a single night in January 2016. 66% were residing in shelters or transitional housing programs, while 33% were without shelter.
- The number of those in homeless shelters or transitional housing was split almost equally between people in families (47%) and individuals (53%).
- Five states, California (22%), New York (16%), Florida (6%), Texas (4%), and Washington (4%), accounted for more than half of the homeless population in the United States in 2016.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States#Homeless_veterans
Wikipedia
In 2009 it was estimated that
one out of 50 children or 1.5 million children in the United States of America would experience some form of homelessness each year.
[7]
There were an estimated
37,878 homeless veterans estimated in the United States during January 2017, or 8.6 percent of all homeless adults. Just over 90 percent of homeless U.S. veterans are male.
[
New York City reported it had approximately
114,000 temporarily
homeless school children.
There were an estimated
57,849 homeless veterans estimated in the United States during January 2013; or 12 percent of all homeless adults.[
citation needed] Just under 8 percent of homeless U.S. veterans are female.
The number of homeless children in the US grew from 1.2 million in 2007 to 1.6 million in 2010. The US defines homelessness as "individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence," per
McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
[72] The number of homeless children reached record highs in 2011,
[69] 2012,
[70] and 2013
[71] at about three times their number in 1983.
[70] An "estimated two million [youth] run away from or are forced out of their homes each year" in the United States.
[73]
One out of 50 children or
1.5 million children in United States of America will be homeless each year.
[7] In 2013 that number jumped to one out of 30 children, or 2.5 million.
[74]
Texas, California and Florida have the highest numbers of unaccompanied homeless youth under the age of 18; comprising 58% of the total homeless under 18 youth population
[8]
College youth that are homeless account for
over one million of the young homeless population.
[82] According to the Free Application Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA, in 2013, over 58,000 students identified as homeless on their application.
[82] "The federal government defines these unaccompanied homeless youth (UHY) as individuals who do not have "fixed, regular and adequate" housing and who are "not in the physical custody of a parent or adult
Homeless women with children
Another study discovered that the three biggest risk factors that contributed to family homelessness in the United States are: ethnicity, lack of resources (specifically funds), and young children/pregnancy.
[92] There is also a strong correlation between homeless families and households run and financed by a single female, especially one from a minority group and with at least two children.
[
Mental health
Homeless individuals report mental illness as being the number three reason for becoming or staying homeless.
[99] Such illnesses are often closely linked with the fourth reason—substance abuse
