Homelessness is a major social issue in many developed countries. It is defined as the condition of people without a regular dwelling place. In the United States, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines homeless people as those who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence. According to HUD’s 2007 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, an estimated 754,000 people were homeless on any given night in 2006. The same report estimates that 1.56 million people experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year. Other estimates put the number of homeless Americans even higher. A study by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty gives the following estimate: “Between 2.3 and 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness each year.”
The causes of homelessness are varied and complex. They include individual factors such as mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, physical disability, domestic violence, financial hardship; and structural factors such as deinstitutionalization, insufficient affordable housing stock,-, welfare reform;- zoning practices;-, racial discrimination;- , job loss due to economic downturns or globalization.- . In addition, veterans are overrepresented among the homeless population.-.
There are different types of homelessness with different service needs. Some people are chronically homeless, meaning they have been continuously homeless for more than one year or they have had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years (during which they spent a total of at least 180 days homeless). Others are episodically homeless – they may have periods of time when they have housing followed by periods when they do not. Still others are transitional – their period without housing is shorter and less frequent than chronic or episodic homelessness but it still disrupts their lives significantly. People who live in cars, abandoned buildings, parks or other places not intended for human habitation (“street sleepers”) make up another category known as “hidden homelessness”. Families with children represent yet another group within the homeless population. Each subgroup has distinct service needs that must be taken into account when designing programs and services to address homelessness effectively.
The problem of homelessness has received increasing attention from government officials in recent years. In 2002, then-President George W Bush established the first White House Task Force on Homelessness. The task force released its strategy for addressing homelessness in June 2002. This was followed by passage of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act reauthorization bill in November 2002 which provided unprecedented levels of federal funding for programs aimed at addressing chronic homelessness among other things.[47