Who are the homeless?

Question

I would like to know more about the background the homeless populations in America’s cities. These narratives should drive public policy but after many searches over the past year, I still consider myself hopelessly under-informed. For clarity, two narratives might be: 1. Most homeless have been displaced by gentrification and would resume more conventional lives if the social policies were strongly geared towards increase in housing supply. 2. Most homeless are addicts or suffer from mental illness and would be helped more by drug programs or inpatient treatment of mental illness. What I am looking for here is reliable references that use, for example, statistics or perhaps well-thought-out arguments to possibly replace the cartoonish scenarios above. I have not found anything in my searches beyond anecdotes - I am beginning to worry that there is no reliable information.

Answer 1

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides annual homeless statistics each year that I often reference in sociology papers. Here is a link to their most recent report: https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2018-AHAR-Part-1.pdf.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness also has some helpful information on their website https://endhomelessness.org/.

Finally, here are some news resources I used when writing a paper on homelessness in L.A. last year: https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-homeless-20180128-story.html

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-homeless-how-we-got-here-20180201-story.html

https://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-homeless-arrests-20180204-story.html

I hope these help! If you need this information to write a paper, feel free to reach out if you have any more questions during the research or writing process.