Thank you for the presentation on homelessness in America and Texas. I appreciate you providing an overview of the key issues and proposed solutions.

1. Homelessness in
America
The Forgotten Faces

2. Learning Objectives
At the end of the presentation, the audience should be able to:
 Identify the McKinney-Vento Act criteria for homelessness
 Recognize 3-4 reasons a person may become homeless
 Describe the relationship between domestic violence and
homelessness
 Identify 2-3 key issues the mentally ill homeless struggle
with in our society
 Discuss the unique issues of the rural homeless

3. Myth Busters
 http://www.caction.org/homeless/ECHO/ECHO_Video_
12-10-06.swf

4. McKinney-Vento Act
 A Bill passed by Congress in 1994
 Determined the criteria for a person to be considered
homeless by the government
 A person is considered homeless if:
 1. Do not have a permanent residence and/or
 2. Nighttime residence is a shelter
 3. Nighttime residence is a government run facility
www.nationalhomeless.org

5. Statistics
 3.5 million people (1.35 million are children) are likely to
experience homelessness in a given year, according to
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2007
 Homeless population is estimated to be 42% African
American, 39% Caucasian, 13% Hispanic, 4% Native
American, and 2% Asian, according to the US Conference of
Mayors in 2007
www.nationalhomeless.org

6. Causes of Homelessness
 Inability to pay rent
 Mental Illness
 Domestic Violence
 Unaffordable Health Care
 Addictions and Substance Abuse
www.nationalhomeless.org

7. Government Action
 Section 8 public housing-allows person to pay 30% of their
income towards rent and the government pays the rest.
 HUD Homeless Assistant Grants-provide money for shelter,
transitional housing, and other services that homeless
people need
 Health Care for the Homeless-provides health care to the
homeless in an affordable way so that the person can
receive care that they would otherwise not be able to get.
 www.nationalhomeless.org

8. Domestic Violence and
Substance Abuse
 Regular alcohol abuse is one of the leading risk factors
for domestic abuse
 Alcoholic women are more likely to report a history of
childhood abuse than non-alcoholic women
 Alcoholism treatment does not “cure” abusive behavior
 51% of domestic violence program directors agree that
a woman’s use of alcohol can be a barrier to leaving a
violent relationship
www.ncadv.org

9. Cont’d
 The risk of domestic violence increases when both partners abuse
drugs and/or alcohol
 Batterers living with women who have alcohol abuse problems
often try to justify their violence as a way to control their victims
when they are drunk
 Men who batter frequently use alcohol abuse as an excuse for
their violence
 Children of substance abusing parents are more likely to
experience abuse than children in non-substance abusing
households
www.ncadv.org

10. Treatment for Substance Abuse
and Domestic Violence
 No causal link between substance abuse and domestic
violence
 Failure to deal with one without dealing with the other any
treatment program interferes with the effectiveness of the
program
 Many service providers recognize the correlation between
substance abuse and domestic violence
 Few domestic violence programs can offer adequate
counseling or health services for substance abusers
www.ncadv.org

11. Reasons
 Limited funding and resources to pay for equipment
and staff
 Primarily focus on providing safety and shelter
 There is fear that focusing on the substance abuse
problems of victims will encourage victim blaming
www.ncadv.org

12. Domestic Violence and the
Homeless
 Approximately 63% of homeless women have experienced domestic violence
in their adult lives
 When a woman decides to leave an abusive relationship, she often has
nowhere to go. This is particularly true of a woman with few resources
 She is often forced to choose between a life of violence and a life on the
streets
 Because of the nature of a homeless family, it takes longer to find permanent
housing
 Compared to single men and women, families remained in emergency shelter,
transitional housing and permanent supportive housing longer
www.nationalhomeless.org

13. Cont’d
 Victims often have poor credit and poor employment histories due to the domestic violence
 Landlords often discriminate against victims if they have a protection order
 If violence occurs in the home, landlords can try to evict their tenants and the victims may become
homeless because they were abused
 The Federal Housing Act Prohibits landlords from treating women differently from male tenants living
in public housing, apartments, condominiums, trailer parks, and homeless shelters
 The National Law Center’s Domestic Violence Program works to improve access to housing for
domestic violence survivors and their families
 Long term efforts to address homelessness must include increasing the availability of affordable
housing, ensuring adequate wages, and providing supportive services
www. nlchp.org
www.nationalhomeless.org

14. Substance Abuse and the
Homeless
 Substance abuse is often the cause of homelessness
 Addiction often disrupts families and causes people to lose
jobs
 This in turn can lead to homelessness
 However, substance abuse can be the result of
homelessness, not the cause
 The homeless use alcohol or drugs to cope with their
situations
www.nationalhomeless.org

15. Breaking the addiction
 Motivation to stop substance abuse is poor
 Survival is higher priority than personal growth and development
 Finding food and shelter is more important than drug counseling
 Many homeless have become estranged from family and friends and without the support
of family and friends, recovery can be difficult
 Substance abuse also occurs with mental illness for many homeless and they use street
drugs as self-medication
 Many programs for substance abuse do not take clients with mental disorders and
programs for mental disorders do not take clients with substance abuse disorders.
www.nationalhomeless.org

16. Mental Illness and the
Homeless
 According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
20-25% of the homeless in the US suffers from a form of severe mental
illness.
 Patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are particularly vulnerable
 Mental disorders may also affect physical health, especially in the homeless
 Roughly half of the mentally ill homeless population in the US also suffers
from substance abuse and addiction
 The combination of mental illness, substance abuse and poor physical health
makes it very difficult for people to gain employment and stability
www.nationalhomeless.org

17. Cont’d
 Availability of treatment services for the mentally ill would
not only help mental illness, but improve homelessness also
 Many homeless people have admitted they are open to
treatment for their mental illness
 Permanent housing may be the key to ending
homelessness, but residential stability is best achieved by
offering treatment services for the homeless’ mental illness
issues
www.nationalhomeless.org

18. Rural Homeless
 Homelessness is not just an urban phenomenon
 People experience the same difficulties associated with homelessness and
housing distress in America’s small towns and rural areas as in the larger
cities
 There are far fewer shelters in rural areas than in urban areas
 They are less likely to live on the streets or in a shelter and more likely to live
in a car or camper, or with relatives in overcrowded or substandard housing
 Restricting the definition of homelessness-literally living on the street-would
exclude the rural homeless from accessing federal dollars to address their
problem
www.nationalhomeless.org

19. Cont’d
 McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act definition (refer to
page 1)
 Does not create and atmosphere that includes rural
homeless while it does include their urban counterparts
 Rural homelessness, like urban homelessness is the result
of poverty and lack of affordable housing
 Rural homelessness is most pronounced in rural regions
that are primarily agricultural; regions based on mining,
timber, or fishing; and regions experiencing economic
growth, for example: industrial plants that attract more
workers than jobs available and areas near urban centers
that attract new businesses thus driving up taxes and living
expenses

20. Cont’d
 Ending rural homelessness is complicated by lack of awareness,
isolation and lack of resources
 Broadening the definition of homeless to include temporary or
dilapidated facilities would be helpful
 Outreach to isolated areas
 Awareness on a national level
 Ultimately it requires job that pay a living wage, affordable
housing, access to health care and transportation
www.nationalhomeless.org

21. Homelessness in Texas

22. Amazing Facts
 January 2011, on a single night, approximately 36,800+ individuals were homeless in the
state of Texas. They were on the streets, under bridges, in campers, abandoned lots,
emergency shelters and in other places not intended for human habitation
 Homelessness attacks, men, women, children, families, mentally ill, persons with
disabilities, full-time employees, chronic substance abusers, victims of family violence
and veterans
 Most individuals experience short episodes of homeless lasting only a few nights, but
some experience chronic homelessness that lasts more than a year.
 Approximately 91,000 Texans experience homelessness over the course of a year
 Homelessness impacts about 7% of the households living below 30% of the Area
Median Income (AMI) in Texas and this is when access to housing is at its most
dangerous
www.thn.org

23. Amazing facts cont’d
 Texas experienced an increase of approximately 4% from 2009 to 2010 in the number of
poor households that spent more than 50% of their incomes on rent
 HUD defines this as a household that is severely burdened by the cost of housing
 The “doubled up” population which is people who live with friends, family or other
nonrelatives for economic reasons increased by 12% in Texas from 2009 to 2010
 Ken Martin, Executive Director of Texas Homeless Network supports the availability of
Permanent Supportive Housing units in order to substantially reduce chronic
homeless, which Texas saw an increase of 22%
 Over and over, the theme remains whether state, local or national, people become
homeless due to insufficient financial resources to obtain or maintain permanent
affordable housing
www.thn.org

24. Get into Action
 Volunteer in a local shelter or food bank
 Organize a clothing drive and donate the items to a local
shelter
 Write your local congressman or representative and urge
them to support legislation that will benefit homeless people
 Participate in a Homeless Challenge-spend 24 or 48 hours
on the streets with homeless guides and learn about the
challenges of being homeless Homeless Challenge
Project toolkit
www.nationalhomeless.org

25. Local Homeless Shelters
 Salvation Army La Dominion Apartments for the Homeless
1302 N. Louis 3605 E. Forrest #G
Victoria, TX 77901 Victoria, TX 77901
(361)576-1297 (361)572-4566
 Martha’s Kids Homeless Shelter Coastal Bend
408 E. Goodwin 6502 Nursery Drive Suite 100
Victoria, TX 77901 Victoria, TX 77904
(361)578-5811 (361)575-0611
 Perpetual Help Home Women’s Shelter
705 East Santa Rosa
Victoria, TX 77901
(361)575-5335

26. Contacts
 National Alcohol and Substance Abuse Information Call
Center
1-800-784-6776
www.addictioncareoptions.com
 National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-SAFE
www.ndvh.org
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
www.ncadv.org

27. Questions?
Rhonda Ladner RN
ladnerr@uhv.edu

28. References
 Kaye, C. B. (2007). A kid’s guide to hunger & homelessness How
to take action! Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing Inc. ISBN-
13: 978-1-57542-240-4
 http://www.addictioncareoptions.com
 http://www.nationalhomeless.org
 http://www.ncadv.org
 http://www.ndvh.org
 http://www.nlchp.org
 http://www.thn.org/