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HOMELESSNESS FACTS
Homelessness In Monterey County
According to preliminary 2009 Homeless Census figures, the number of homeless individuals and families has grown in Monterey County by 41% since census-year 2007.
Monterey County's rate of homelessness is 3 times greater than the national average.
Over 700 homeless men, women and children are in shelters in Monterey County each night (an increase of 37% since 2007). 48% of these individuals are members of families who are homeless. This is the fastest growing segment in the homelessness population in Monterey County.
For more information regarding the homeless census, please read the complete results from the 2007 Monterey County Homeless Census and Survey. The final version of the 2009 Homeless Census will be available shortly.
Causes Of Homelessness In America
The reason people become homeless varies considerably from person to person, however nationally the vast majority of people fall into homelessness as a result of simple poverty. In 2005, 13.3% of Americans lived under the federal poverty line.1 This figure has been rising steadily since the late 1990s, and, in this new recessionary climate, the rate of impoverished Americans will most likely sky-rocket.
Imbedded in the rising rates of poverty are the subsidiary causes of an eroding job market and a decline in public assistance. Unemployment rates over the last 20 years, up until the latest economic downturn, have remained relatively low. However this low number masks the destabilizing trend of stagnant or declining real wages and fewer benefits. With lower wages in relation to rent and grocery prices and worse medical and life insurance, families have increasingly found themselves one lay off, one broken arm, one faulty carburetor away from homelessness.
The second subsidiary reason is less public assistance. In 1996, a Republican Congress and President Bill Clinton reformed the welfare system in America, with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. In doing so, 53% of individuals were cut from the welfare rolls between 1997 and 2000.2 Initially the effect was largely positive: real wages momentarily increased, more hours were being worked by Americans, and fewer individuals were on the welfare rolls. However this hid the fact that fewer families were insuring themselves against medical mishaps or a lay off, fewer families were able to recover if the unfortunate did occur, and of course fewer families were looking to the government for aide because the resources that were provided did not provide adequate relief. The majority of Americans who were moved off public assistance rolls in the aftermath were not rescued from poverty but were in fact still impoverished and being offered no or inadequate benefits. For example, the current maximum benefit for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), a major federal assistance program, is 29% of the federal poverty level for a single mother of two children.3 An average single mother of two would more than likely qualify for far less than the maximum, and considering the hassle and time it takes to maneuver the bureaucratic welfare system, these benefits may not be worth the energy it would take to apply for them. Federal and state public assistance programs are currently unable to prevent millions of hard working families from becoming homelessness.
The next cause of homelessness, beyond simple poverty, is the lack of low-income housing. Between 1970 and 1995, the gap between the number of low-income renters and the number of low-income housing increased from zero to 4.4 million units.4 More and more, real estate companies and private investors alike are realizing that middle-income or high-income housing affords them a larger profit. As a result, low-income units have been renovated to higher-income units. This creates a gap between the shrinking market of low-income housing and the growing number of impoverished individuals. In addition, the housing market bubble of the last 15 years caused home prices and rental prices to sky-rocket out of the range of even middle-class families. But despite the housing bubble bursting and house prices declining substantially, the average rental prices across the country have continued to increase. This is due to a growing segment of the American population looking to rent, due to their own home foreclosures. More people looking to rent causes growing competition for those rental properties which in turn allows landlords to raise their rental prices. With fewer housing options available for many families, there is no other place to go except for soup kitchens and emergency shelters.
Other causes, mentioned briefly above, include lack of health insurance (combined with high medical expenses), domestic violence, and substance abuse. Medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States. In 2001, half of the 1,458,000 bankruptcies in America were filed due to illness or injury. Surprisingly, in more than three-quarters of those cases, the person who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance at the onset of the illness or injury.5 Unfortunately their health insurance proved to be inadequate. On the other hand, domestic violence is the leading cause of homelessness for women and their children. Nationally half of all single women and their children who are homeless are fleeing domestic violence.6 Another cause of homelessness, substance abuse, has proven increasingly controversial in recent years. While it is true that many homelessness men and women have substance abuse issues, it is not accurate in many cases to conclude that their substance abuse issues diretly led to them being homelessness. Research on the cause and effect relation between substance abuse and homelessness is inconclusive. Mental illness, another cause of homelessness, is commonly seen in conjunction with substance abuse. Approximately 16% of homeless individuals suffer from some form of mental illness.7 Amound single males, mental illness and substance abuse are some of the most often seen barriers to homeless individuals gaining employment and safe housing.
The causes for homelessness in America are varied and complex. Every family or individual who is forced onto the street has their own set of problems to overcome in order to find stable and sustainable housing. At Shelter Outreach Plus, we try to address as many of these issues as possible. We do this in order to ensure that once they do exit our programs, they will have the best chance possible to remain off the streets and independent.
1U.S. Bureau of the Census. Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in the United States: 2003, 2004,2005.
2Soss, Joe (2002). Success Stories. South End Press. p. 65.
3Nickelson, Idara. “The District Should Use Its Upcoming TANF Bonus To Increase Cash Assistance and Remove Barriers to Work”, 2004. D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.
4Institute for Children and Poverty. A Shelter is Not a Home: Or is it? April 2001.
5David U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Warren, Deborah Thorne, and Steffie Woolhandler, MarketWatch: Illness And Injury As Contributors To Bankruptcy, Health Affairs Web Exclusive, February 2, 2005.
6U.S. Conference of Mayors. A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America's Cities: 2001.