Are shelters the answer to family homelessness?

• Author: Nunez, Ralph da Costa
• Position: Life in America - Cover Story

FAMILY HOMELESSNESS is undergoing a marked transformation and entering a new stage of unprecedented growth. After shifting from an emergency housing problem in the early 1980s to one of sustained poverty during the 1990s, homelessness is on the verge of taking yet another turn. Limitations on the availability of public assistance and a booming, then faltering, economy have destabilized millions of families and ultimately forced thousands into homelessness.

Twenty years ago, one-time housing emergencies--fires, hazardous living conditions, and personal calamities--were the primary cause of family homelessness. Forced out of their homes, families required short-term emergency shelter until they were able to locate new housing. Because of the Reagan Administration's reductions in housing subsidies and social service programs, followed by the welfare reforms of the 1990s, homelessness grew tremendously, taking on an entirely new dimension. On average, homeless families are substantially younger, less educated, and poorer than those of the 1980s. In essence, an entire generation has been notched down into a chronic poverty that claims homelessness as one of its most defining characteristics.

For many, homelessness is not simply a housing issue. Rather, it stems from poor education, lack of employable skills, inadequate health care, domestic violence, child abuse, foster care, and insufficient child care. Many of today's homeless families are headed by a young unmarried mother, with two or three children. She grew up in poverty, may have experienced domestic violence, and never completed high school, often dropping out due to pregnancy. She has at least one child suffering from a chronic health problem and has had trouble enrolling her kids in school. She has lived with a relative or partner, or doubled-up prior to becoming homeless, and left her last residence due to overcrowding, a disagreement, or violence. She currently is unemployed due to a lack of work skills or child care--or both--and is dependent on public assistance to support herself and her family.

As for the children, homelessness is usually not a brief or singular experience--27% have been homeless more than once, living in at least three different residences in a single year. Without permanent housing, such youngsters endure frequent moves--at a rate 16 times that of the typical American family--from motels to doubled-up apartments with family or friends to shelters. On average, they are homeless 10 months at a time, or an entire school year, a...