Ending Homeless

Homeless is an umbrella term for people without a place to sleep at night, including individuals who are in transitional housing programs or living on the streets. Homelessness is a complex issue with many causes, but it is usually exacerbated by a lack of affordable housing and high levels of poverty or unemployment, as well as by mental health and substance abuse issues. It is often a long-term challenge, with people moving in and out of homelessness for years as they work to overcome obstacles that prevent them from finding steady employment, accessing treatment and building stable lives.

Across the United States, about one in three renter households spends more than half of their income on housing. These households are considered severely cost-burdened, and the number of these families is rising, a sign that affordable housing is a nationwide crisis.

A growing body of research suggests that a wide variety of personal circumstances can lead to homelessness, including an inadequately funded social safety net, inadequate incomes, family separation, a history of trauma, and serious medical or mental health problems. A range of barriers also contribute to the problem, including discrimination and lack of opportunity to access services, barriers to employment, and poor quality housing.

The most important factor in ending homelessness is providing a safe and secure place to live. This can include emergency shelters, permanent supportive housing, and transitional housing. Currently, the nation’s primary system for responding to people in need of help is coordinated by Continuums of Care (CoCs), which are local communities that plan and coordinate services for homeless people. CoCs collect data through Point-in-Time Counts, which take place at various times throughout the year and provide an estimate of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a given night.

While the overall population of homeless individuals has decreased since 2007, progress has been uneven across subgroups. In particular, men (who comprise 68 percent of the individual population) continue to experience disproportionately high rates of homelessness, indicating that gaps in the social safety net and challenges within feeder systems are largely responsible. In addition, people who are living as transgender or nonbinary and those with children are also disproportionately represented among the homeless population and face unique barriers to ending their homelessness.

You can support the fight to end homelessness by donating toiletries and clothing, particularly baby items and children’s clothes, which are in especially high demand. Instead of throwing out clothes that your kids have outgrown, consider bringing them to a local donation center like GrowNYC’s Greenmarket Clothing Collection, which repurposes and recycles New Yorkers’ old clothes for the homeless. You can also donate food and other essentials to local homeless shelters.