Photo by Susan Madden Lankford
According to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, there are an estimated 100 million homeless people worldwide, which is startling when you consider how affluent some parts of the world are. A recent article titled 25 Cities with Extremely High Homeless Populations listed 14 foreign and 11 US cities with way too many homeless people. Worst was Manila, where 70,000 children live by begging or peddling. The next worst foreign cities on the list in order are Moscow, Mexico City, Jakarta, Mumbai, Buenos Aires, Budapest, Sao Paulo, Athens, Rome, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Dublin and Lisbon. That list may be faulty, because it includes no African cities. The worst American City is New York, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Tampa, Washington D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Indianapolis and Denver.
As of 2013, the number of homeless people sleeping each night in the New York City shelter system was already over 60,000, 22,000 of whom were children. Currently 53,615 homeless men, women, and children bed down each night in the NYC municipal shelter system. Additionally, more than 5,000 homeless adults and children sleep each night in other public and private shelters, and thousands more sleep rough on the streets or in other public spaces. During the course of each year, more than 111,000 different homeless New Yorkers, including more than 40,000 children, sleep in the municipal shelter system. The number of homeless New Yorkers in shelters has risen by 73% since 2002. The homelessness crisis in New York is exacerbated by the lack of housing assistance initiatives provided by local authorities.
Los Angeles has one of the largest concentrations of homeless people in the United States: currently about 58,423 homeless people—a 16% increase from the 50,214 counted in 2011. Fortunately, these totals are way down from the 88,345 homeless counted in 2005. Between 6,500 and 10,000 people in San Francisco are homeless at various times. And 3,000 to 5,000 of them refuse to live in temporary shelters provided by the government. Although San Francisco spends $165 million a year on services for the homeless, all that money hasn’t made a dent in the homeless population in at least nine years. In addition to the 6,436 homeless adults counted during one night last year, a separate daytime count found 914 homeless youth.
According to the 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, Seattle has a homeless population of 9,106. Among many health problems, diabetes is a common ailment among the homeless. Common causes of death among homeless individuals in the Seattle area include intoxication, cardiovascular disease and homicide—with the average age at death being 47. In 2007 there were 160 violent attacks against Seattle homeless people, with the most common reasons being race, religion or sexual orientation.
San Diego, with a population of 1,345,895 contains 8,520 homeless people in 2014—down 11.6% from 9,638 in 2012. The opening of a transitional Connections Housing facility, as well as ex-Mayor Bob Filner’s push to increase funding for homeless shelters and encourage cooperation between various groups that aid the homeless, have all helped. The Serial Inebriate Program, a multi-agency effort intended to help homeless people deal with alcohol and substance abuse issues, placed 720 people in treatment and housing programs last year— an 84% increase from the arrangements made in 2012.
Lack of affordable housing and homeless shelters has contributed to the alarming number of 16,000 homeless people in the Tampa area. When Republicans held their 2012 convention in the city, CBS News reported that the Tampa-St.Petersburg area had the highest homelessness rate in the nation, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness: 57 homeless for every 10,000 residents.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s 2014 Point-in-Time Count of the homeless in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area (seven counties and the district) found 11,946 homeless individuals, up 3.5% from the previous year’s count. Last year, the city government began to provide shelter to its homeless population whenever temperature levels dropped below freezing. Those people who do not want to stay in temporary shelters are provided with a budget to stay in hotels.
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless recently found that 21,000 Chicagoans lacked residences in the course of a year, and a 2005 University of Illinois report funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services found that as many as 25,000 Illinois youth are homeless. Research has shown that the “Housing First,” approach best remedies the factors that contribute to a household’s homelessness. Research also reveals that for some, lifelong support may be required to prevent the reoccurrence of homelessness, but that placing these people in housing is the most socially productive and cost-effective approach to the problem.
According to a 2011 study, there are about 4,088 homeless in Baltimore, many of whom are families with children. Today, the “Charm City” local government is making strides toward putting an end to this problem by creating projects aimed at providing affordable housing and health care. There are as many as 2,200 homeless people every night in Indianapolis, which is equivalent to around 15,000 over the course of a year. Thought this city is known for its faith-based shelters, there are just not enough of them to provide a place for the entire homeless population. According to the 2012 Point in Time report from Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, Denver saw an increase in its homeless population from 411 to 964 between the years of 2011 and 2012.
