essay about homeless child

Mental health effects of poverty, hunger, and homelessness on children and teens

Rising inflation and an uncertain economy are deeply affecting the lives of millions of Americans, particularly those living in low-income communities. It may seem impossible for a family of four to survive on just over $27,000 per year or a single person on just over $15,000, but that’s what millions of people do everyday in the United States. Approximately 37.9 million Americans, or just under 12%, now live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau .

Additional data from the Bureau show that children are more likely to experience poverty than people over the age of 18. Approximately one in six kids, 16% of all children, live in families with incomes below the official poverty line.

Those who are poor face challenges beyond a lack of resources. They also experience mental and physical issues at a much higher rate than those living above the poverty line. Read on for a summary of the myriad effects of poverty, homelessness, and hunger on children and youth. And for more information on APA’s work on issues surrounding socioeconomic status, please see the Office of Socioeconomic Status .

Who is most affected?

Poverty rates are disproportionately higher among most non-White populations. Compared to 8.2% of White Americans living in poverty, 26.8% of American Indian and Alaska Natives, 19.5% of Blacks, 17% of Hispanics and 8.1% of Asians are currently living in poverty.

Similarly, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous children are overrepresented among children living below the poverty line. More specifically, 35.5% of Black people living in poverty in the U.S. are below the age of 18. In addition, 40.7% of Hispanic people living below the poverty line in the U.S. are younger than age 18, and 29.1% of American Indian and Native American children lived in poverty in 2018. In contrast, approximately 21% of White people living in poverty in the U.S. are less than 18 years old.

Furthermore, families with a female head of household are more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to families with a male head of household. Twenty-three percent of female-headed households live in poverty compared to 11.4% of male-headed households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau .

What are the effects of poverty on children and teens?

The impact of poverty on young children is significant and long lasting. Poverty is associated with substandard housing, hunger, homelessness, inadequate childcare, unsafe neighborhoods, and under-resourced schools. In addition, low-income children are at greater risk than higher-income children for a range of cognitive, emotional, and health-related problems, including detrimental effects on executive functioning, below average academic achievement, poor social emotional functioning, developmental delays, behavioral problems, asthma, inadequate nutrition, low birth weight, and higher rates of pneumonia.

Psychological research also shows that living in poverty is associated with differences in structural and functional brain development in children and adolescents in areas related to cognitive processes that are critical for learning, communication, and academic achievement, including social emotional processing, memory, language, and executive functioning.

Children and families living in poverty often attend under-resourced, overcrowded schools that lack educational opportunities, books, supplies, and appropriate technology due to local funding policies. In addition, families living below the poverty line often live in school districts without adequate equal learning experiences for both gifted and special needs students with learning differences and where high school dropout rates are high .

What are the effects of hunger on children and teens?

One in eight U.S. households with children, approximately 12.5%, could not buy enough food for their families in 2021 , considerably higher than the rate for households without children (9.4%). Black (19.8%) and Latinx (16.25%) households are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, with food insecurity rates in 2021 triple and double the rate of White households (7%), respectively.

Research has found that hunger and undernutrition can have a host of negative effects on child development. For example, maternal undernutrition during pregnancy increases the risk of negative birth outcomes, including premature birth, low birth weight, smaller head size, and lower brain weight. In addition, children experiencing hunger are at least twice as likely to report being in fair or poor health and at least 1.4 times more likely to have asthma, compared to food-secure children.

The first three years of a child’s life are a period of rapid brain development. Too little energy, protein and nutrients during this sensitive period can lead to lasting deficits in cognitive, social and emotional development . School-age children who experience severe hunger are at increased risk for poor mental health and lower academic performance , and often lag behind their peers in social and emotional skills .

What are the effects of homelessness on children and teens?

Approximately 1.2 million public school students experienced homelessness during the 2019-2020 school year, according to the National Center for Homeless Education (PDF, 1.4MB) . The report also found that students of color experienced homelessness at higher proportions than expected based on the overall number of students. Hispanic and Latino students accounted for 28% of the overall student body but 38% of students experiencing homelessness, while Black students accounted for 15% of the overall student body but 27% of students experiencing homelessness. While White students accounted for 46% of all students enrolled in public schools, they represented 26% of students experiencing homelessness.

Homelessness can have a tremendous impact on children, from their education, physical and mental health, sense of safety, and overall development. Children experiencing homelessness frequently need to worry about where they will live, their pets, their belongings, and other family members. In addition, homeless children are less likely to have adequate access to medical and dental care, and may be affected by a variety of health challenges due to inadequate nutrition and access to food, education interruptions, trauma, and disruption in family dynamics.

In terms of academic achievement, students experiencing homelessness are more than twice as likely to be chronically absent than non-homeless students , with greater rates among Black and Native American or Alaska Native students. They are also more likely to change schools multiple times and to be suspended—especially students of color.

Further, research shows that students reporting homelessness have higher rates of victimization, including increased odds of being sexually and physically victimized, and bullied. Student homelessness correlates with other problems, even when controlling for other risks. They experienced significantly greater odds of suicidality, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, risky sexual behavior, and poor grades in school.

What can you do to help children and families experiencing poverty, hunger, and homelessness?

There are many ways that you can help fight poverty in America. You can:

• Volunteer your time with charities and organizations that provide assistance to low-income and homeless children and families.
• Donate money, food, and clothing to homeless shelters and other charities in your community.
• Donate school supplies and books to underresourced schools in your area.
• Improve access to physical, mental, and behavioral health care for low-income Americans by eliminating barriers such as limitations in health care coverage.
• Create a “safety net” for children and families that provides real protection against the harmful effects of economic insecurity.
• Increase the minimum wage, affordable housing and job skills training for low-income and homeless Americans.
• Intervene in early childhood to support the health and educational development of low-income children.
• Provide support for low-income and food insecure children such as Head Start , the National School Lunch Program , and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) .
• Increase resources for public education and access to higher education.
• Support research on poverty and its relationship to health, education, and well-being.
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5 Essays About Homelessness

Around the world, people experience homelessness. According to a 2005 survey by the United Nations, 1.6 billion people lack adequate housing. The causes vary depending on the place and person. Common reasons include a lack of affordable housing, poverty, a lack of mental health services, and more. Homelessness is rooted in systemic failures that fail to protect those who are most vulnerable. Here are five essays that shine a light on the issue of homelessness:

What Would ‘Housing as a Human Right’ Look Like in California? (2020) – Molly Solomon

For some time, activists and organizations have proclaimed that housing is a human right. This essay explores what that means and that it isn’t a new idea. Housing as a human right was part of federal policy following the Great Depression. In a 1944 speech introducing what he called the “Second Bill of Rights,” President Roosevelt attempted to address poverty and income equality. The right to have a “decent home” was included in his proposals. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration also recognizes housing as a human right. It describes the right to an “adequate standard of living.” Other countries such as France and Scotland include the right to housing in their constitutions. In the US, small local governments have adopted resolutions on housing. How would it work in California?

At KQED, Molly Solomon covers housing affordability. Her stories have aired on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and other places. She’s won three national Edward R. Murrow awards.

“What People Get Wrong When They Try To End Homelessness” – James Abro

In his essay, James Abro explains what led up to six weeks of homelessness and his experiences helping people through social services. Following the death of his mother and eviction, Abro found himself unhoused. He describes himself as “fortunate” and feeling motivated to teach people how social services worked. However, he learned that his experience was somewhat unique. The system is complicated and those involved don’t understand homelessness. Abro believes investing in affordable housing is critical to truly ending homelessness.

James Abro is the founder of Advocate for Economic Fairness and 32 Beach Productions. He works as an advocate for homeless rights locally and nationally. Besides TalkPoverty, he contributes to Rebelle Society and is an active member of the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness.

“No Shelter For Some: Street-Sleepers” (2019)

This piece (by an unknown author) introduces the reader to homelessness in urban China. In the past decades, a person wouldn’t see many homeless people. This was because of strict rules on internal migration and government-supplied housing. Now, the rules have changed. People from rural areas can travel more and most urban housing is privatized. People who are homeless – known as “street-sleepers” are more visible. This essay is a good summary of the system (which includes a shift from police management of homelessness to the Ministry of Civil Affairs) and how street-sleepers are treated.

“A Window Onto An American Nightmare” (2020) – Nathan Heller

This essay from the New Yorker focuses on San Francisco’s history with homelessness, the issue’s complexities, and various efforts to address it. It also touches on how the pandemic has affected homelessness. One of the most intriguing parts of this essay is Heller’s description of becoming homeless. He says people “slide” into it, as opposed to plunging. As an example, someone could be staying with friends while looking for a job, but then the friends decide to stop helping. Maybe someone is jumping in and out of Airbnbs, looking for an apartment. Heller’s point is that the line between only needing a place to stay for a night or two and true “homelessness” is very thin.

Nathan Heller joined the New Yorker’s writing staff in 2013. He writes about technology, higher education, the Bay Area, socioeconomics, and more. He’s also a contributing editor at Vogue, a former columnist for Slate, and contributor to other publications.

“Homelessness in Ireland is at crisis point, and the vitriol shown towards homeless people is just as shocking” (2020)#- Megan Nolan

In Ireland, the housing crisis has been a big issue for years. Recently, it’s come to a head in part due to a few high-profile incidents, such as the death of a young woman in emergency accommodation. The number of children experiencing homelessness (around 4,000) has also shone a light on the severity of the issue. In this essay, Megan Nolan explores homelessness in Ireland as well as the contempt that society has for those who are unhoused.

Megan Nolan writes a column for the New Statesman. She also writes essays, criticism, and fiction. She’s from Ireland but based in London.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

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The life-changing effects of homelessness on children

The cost of living crisis has made it harder for families to afford the everyday essentials, and has plunged thousands more children into poverty. An estimated 4.2 million children were struggling to make ends meet in the UK in 2021-22. Worrying about money affects young people’s development, mood, and their ability to focus. But homelessness adds another layer of uncertainty. It disrupts young people’s lives in every way, and can have serious long-term consequences. Here, we unpack just some of the impacts that homelessness can have on young people’s lives.

11 January 2024

Understanding homelessness

Losing your home can happen overnight. A landlord could decide to hike the rent, making it suddenly unaffordable. The sudden shock of a redundancy can lead to the loss of income a parent was counting on. Rising inflation can make all the other expenses so unaffordable that finding the money for rent becomes impossible. Whatever the cause, those that experience homelessness can feel shame or guilt, like they did something wrong. When we all understand the circumstances that can cause homelessness, there will only be empathy with those experiencing it.

Homelessness doesn’t always look the same. Assuming it only means sleeping on the street can mean we ignore adults and young people alike who are also homeless, but whose struggles are harder to see. This makes it even harder for them to get the support they need. We can all children, no matter their circumstances, deserve a stable home. 

Some kids have no choice but to crash on others’ sofas. Others are living in temporary accommodation provided by the council. Some are in overcrowded spaces, where their sleep is disrupted by people with different schedules. These all have one thing in common: they are not a stable environment for young people to prosper.

Upsetting young lives

Homelessness can impact every element of a child’s life. Their physical and mental health can take a big hit. It’s harder to have access to healthy food or hygiene products. Things like exercise and hobbies may fall lower on the agenda, which can also impact their emotional wellbeing. Not knowing where they’re going after school can also make children feel anxious and like they don’t belong.

School can also become harder to focus on when families are constantly on the move. It’s difficult to find a quiet place to do homework. All the moving around can make it hard to keep track of, or clean, their school uniforms.

Upsetting lives

Without a safe and stable home environment, young people can’t do simple things that every young person should enjoy, like inviting their friends over. For schools with a wide catchment — including young people from families with widely differing incomes — children experiencing homelessness can feel like they stand out. They can feel more self-conscious and judged. Not only is this distressing in the moment, but it has a huge impact on their social development.

This feeling of isolation can seem like a small issue at the time, but it can actually put young people at risk of exploitation . Criminal groups groom children by making them feel heard and less alone.

I thought they wouldn’t listen if I tried speaking to them. I thought they wouldn’t listen if I tried speaking to them.

When Rosie was struggling, she thought that no one would listen if she tried talking about things. When she was referred to The Children's Society, she started to be able to breathe again. "She knew we were here for her, no matter what."

Fighting for stability

Having a consistent, safe space to call home is so important for a child’s development. Not only can it help them feel physically and mentally healthier, but it can make it easier to have healthy relationships with friends and family.  

The cost of living crisis has already added huge pressure on children across the country, but the long-term impacts of experiences like homelessness will be felt by those who experience it for years to come. 

We’re campaigning to reduce the burden of the costs of living on children. This includes cutting the costs of school uniforms , widening access to free school meals , and ensuring care leavers don’t pay council tax . We’re also calling on the government to strengthen the social security lifeline for children. It’s the first step towards ensuring they have safe, secure, and happy childhoods.

Author: Tarini Tiwari

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Homelessness Essay | Essay on Homelessness for Students and Children in English

February 7, 2024 by Prasanna

Homelessness Essay:  In an individual’s life, at some point, he has heard or seen of a person who lives on the streets. A person is homeless if he lives on the streets and holds on to a sign that reads that they need money to buy food.

Although dejectedly these individuals are found everywhere; however, everyone can reduce this vast number. The number of homeless individuals will gradually decrease by providing the essential aid required to place these individuals in permanent housing.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Homelessness for Students and Kids in English

For reference, we are providing students with essay samples on a long essay containing 500 words and a short essay containing 150 words on the topic Homelessness.

Long Essay on Homelessness 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Homelessness is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Can anyone survive if there is no place for them to sit down or fall asleep or to store their belongings? These scenarios are unimaginable for many people, but for the homeless people, these scenarios are part of their daily lives.

The significant quantity of people is not even aware of the situation of homelessness in that is happening in most of the major cities of the world. In contrast, a portion is turning a blind eye to the subject, knowing the situation. The frequently occurring poverty and homelessness can be difficult to discuss for those living a wealthy lifestyle.

Homelessness is also associated with an absence of belonging. Absence of belonging can relate not only to a particular community but also to the people that reside there. Those portions which are aware of the situation of homelessness, some people loathe the poverty-stricken individuals of our society.

The leading causes of homelessness are unaffordability of housing, single parenting, increases in poverty rates, mental health and trauma and also due to lack of education and training. Our society can remove chronic homelessness by providing low income and affordable housing for the homeless population.

Although many facility programs focus on helping solve this significant issue in today’s society, many nations lack the resources necessary to help each one of the homeless people. Men, women, children, adults and families all are affected by one of the major social issue in the world that is homelessness.

Many of us have seen individuals asking for money who have all their belongings in a plastic bag and have nowhere to go. Although the most visible homeless people are the one sleeping roughly in doorways, homelessness also includes individuals who stay in bed and breakfast, hostels or other temporary accommodation or local authority housing.

It is tough to understand how a person becomes homeless, and researches show that they belong from all areas, backgrounds and age groups. Most researches show that more than three-fourth of the youngsters who turn to facility centres for help are homeless due to abuse, eviction or family breakdown.

Many of the young people also often become homeless following the death of their guardian due to which they face double blow becoming bereaved and homeless at the same time. But before seeking any help, these vulnerable young people find themselves sleeping rough.

The young people have no means of supporting themselves financially as they have no qualifications so a significant help to them would be if they get any assistance so that they can return to school or gain a qualification and get housing facilities through which they can find stability by finding worthwhile employment. But unfortunately, they are befriended by drug addicts or forced into prostitution for a minimal income.

Places affected by natural disasters like earthquakes and floods suddenly have thousands of persons whose houses become unliveable and who have nothing in possessions. The society has to change its attitude towards people who are facing these dire situations as its not their fault and help them to make their society a developed one.

Short Essay on Homelessness 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Homelessness is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Homelessness is the state of people who do not have regular housing facilities and is also known as a social problem. Homeless people often spend their nights uncomfortably on the streets.

Also, they don’t have access to ordinary facilities such as money, food, shelter or even medical help. Some homeless person may even spend their nights at their friends’ house with just a blanket.

Some common factors why an individual becomes homeless is if someone faces domestic violence, flees persecution from another country, relationship breakdown, drugs and alcohol misuse, mental health problems, family disputes or may be unable to keep a steady job and hence not able to pay the rent.

Over five million low-income households face the struggles to maintain the homes due to high housing costs or substandard housing standard. The homeless people in our societies struggle every day to find a place to live. The government should take the primary measure to stop the growth of homelessness by providing cheap housing facilities to homeless people and give more opportunities to the less fortunate ones.

10 Lines on Homelessness Essay in English

1. The meaning of the term homelessness means people who do not have a place to stay. 2. Homeless people also include those who sleep in homeless shelters, abandoned buildings, parking garages or warming centres. 3. The right to housing is included in International human rights law. 4. An estimated 100 million people worldwide were found homeless, and almost 1 billion people were found to be living in refugees, temporary homes or in squatters in the year 2005. 5. Due to lack of steady income, homeless people are unable to acquire and maintain secure, safe, regular and adequate housing. 6. The majority of homeless people were men with single males, significantly over-represented in western countries. 7. Their options for earning income if they don’t have any skills or can’t find any source of income is either by begging or panhandling, which has become illegal in many cities. 8. Majority of the countries provides a variety of services to guide homeless people. 9. The services for homeless people provide shelters, clothing and foods by community organizations. 10. The organizations have supports from charities, churches, individual donors and governments.

FAQ’s on Homelessness Essay

Question 1. Define primary and secondary homelessness.

Answer:  Primary homelessness is experienced by individuals without conventional accommodation, for example, sleeping rough. Secondary homelessness is experienced by individuals who move around frequently from one temporary place to another.

Question 2. What are the structural factors causing homelessness?

Answer: The structural factors causing homelessness are poverty, lack of suitable housing, unemployment, benefits issues and policy developments and social trends.

Question 3. Who are the individuals that are mostly affected by homelessness?

Answer: Although the situations of homelessness have affected families, youths and children but most of the individuals who experience homelessness are single adults.

Question 4. Name the four types of homelessness.

Answer: The four types of homelessness are:

• Chronic homelessness
• Episodic homelessness
• Transitional homelessness
• Hidden homelessness.
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THE PROBLEM IS BIGGER THAN YOU KNOW. THE VICTIMS ARE SMALLER THAN YOU THINK. THE SOLUTIONS START WITH YOU.

Put aside everything you think you know about homelessness in America. Most homeless aren’t panhandlers. They aren’t drug users. And up to 1.6 million of them each year … are children.

Here are some facts you should know about family and child homelessness:

• 29% of homeless families are headed by a working adult, usually the mother
• More than half of homeless mothers do not have a high school diploma
• Approximately 63% of homeless women have been victims of domestic violence
• Homeless children are more likely to suffer from hunger, poor physical and emotional health
• They are less likely to attend school, and more likely to fall behind in class
• While the number of homeless children in America is estimated at 1.6 million, many estimates suggest the number could be far higher, as homeless statistics are often under-reported at the city, county and state levels
• Homeless children experience four times as many respiratory infections, twice as many ear infections and are four times more likely go have asthma

But the most important number is one. One caring person takes action, and helps one homeless child get off the street forever. That’s the difference you can make today.

CHILD HOMELESSNESS GET THE FACTS

Homeless Children Essays

Discuss ways in which school system can maintain street children or homeless children, popular essay topics.

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The Homeless in Our Community Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The underlying reasons for homelessness emanate from numerous social and economic sources such as poverty caused by unemployment or poor paying jobs, a deficit of affordable housing, and the lack of services for those who suffer from domestic violence, mental illness, and substance abuse. It is these and other factors that contribute to homelessness, a condition that is seldom a choice for people who must live outside the comfort and security of a home environment. This discussion will examine the homelessness issue including why and what type of people become homeless. It will also review agencies and programs offering assistance to individuals and families living on the street.

Thanks to recent public awareness campaigns by private and government agencies such as the National Coalition for the Homeless and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development respectively, long-standing societal stereotypes of the homeless are gradually evaporating. Images of creatively clothed white-bearded old men leaning against an alley wall clutching a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag have morphed into a family living in their car or a single mother and her children living in a shelter. The estimated half a million children that, at any one time, is homeless in America and their mothers represent the “fastest growing segment of the homeless population” (“Face” 2007). According to current research conducted on homeless shelters, single males comprise forty-five percent and single females fifteen percent of the estimated two million homeless in America. Forty percent of the homeless population is comprised of families and a third of them are single parents with children (“Face” 2007).

It is a misconception that most homeless persons prefer that horrific lifestyle after having adjusted to it. Studies show that ninety-four percent of those without a home certainly would not choose to live this way another day if they had an alternative. Another common fallacy regarding the homeless is that they made poor decisions thus are culpable for their fate. In addition to the large percentage of children that are homeless, many others are victims of their circumstances as well. Some veterans suffer from mental and physical disabilities resulting from combat and cannot maintain a ‘normal’ existence. Others were abused as children or raised in homelessness. Still, others fell victims to the addiction of drugs and alcohol which decimated their working and family life. Some have become ‘unemployable for various reasons or can find only menial jobs after being laid-off from a high-paying position. All homeless are victims in the sense that they do not have a place to call home (“Facts and Myths”, 2007).

Twenty-five percent of homeless women are in this demeaning and dangerous situation because they are escaping violence in the home. Predictably, this is not the case for men as only an insignificant percentage cite family violence as the main reason for their homeless condition. Unemployment is men’s most often answered response and the second most for women. (“Women and Men”, 2001). Other than family violence and to lesser extent unemployment, the differences between the stated causes for their homelessness are statistically equal for men and women. A similar segment of both genders cited drug and alcohol abuse, prolonged illnesses or disabilities, and reaching the limits of federal assistance for their homelessness to the same degree. Recent studies and public exposure have helped displace popular gender misconceptions regarding the main cause of homelessness. One of the most prevalent was that a higher percentage of men were homeless as a result of alcohol and/or drug abuse. The two genders become homeless for essentially the same reasons and to a similar extent outside of the extra cross women must bear, domestic violence (“Women and Men” 2001).

Health issues, both physical and psychological, often negatively affect a homeless person’s re-entry into society. Health care services for the homeless are intrinsically inadequate. Persons without homes seldom possess credit cards or even have bank accounts. Those that are homeless have numerous, multifaceted needs, particularly if they have been forced to sleep outside during their ordeal. The number and extent of the problems homeless persons endure only compound over time. It is financially advantageous for the public and politicians to solve the problem. Helping to take someone off the streets and place them back into mainstream society allows them to contribute to the economy rather than continuing to rely on public assistance (Wallace & Quilgars, 2005). Though there are examples of agencies that offer innovative services and have greatly improved the lives of the homeless, the problem surpasses what resources the private sector and government combined are presently directing towards it and this imbalance is growing along with the homeless population.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offers four programs to help the homeless. Emergency Shelter Grants provides support services and shelter for homeless persons. It also provides monetary assistance intended to prevent a family from losing their home in the first place including short-term utility bills, rent, and mortgage payment assistance for those in imminent danger of losing their house. The Continuum of Care program helps communities to reduce their homeless population by offering a wide range of options including permanent, transitory, or emergency housing to those in need. “HUD believes the best approach for alleviating homelessness is through a community-based process that provides a comprehensive response to the different needs of homeless persons” (“Resource Guide”, 2007). HUD also operates the Single Room Occupancy and The Shelter Plus Care programs which provide additional services.

The Family & Youth Services Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families operates the Basic Center Program which helps communities fund shelters and free meal centers while establishing programs that serve the needs of homeless, exploited, and missing children. The Transitional Living and Street Outreach programs targets youths age 16 to 21, the ‘at-risk group for homelessness. Other federal benefit programs include “Supplemental Security Income, Social Security Disability Insurance, Veteran’s Affairs Compensation, Veterans Affairs Health Care, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Food Stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, One-Stop Career Center System and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)” (“Resource Guide”, 2007). A bill that would have expanded the SCHIP program was vetoed by President Bush this week but is likely to be re-introduced with some possible compromises. The federal government mandates that homeless children be allowed entry and will be appropriately accommodated by public schools, no matter the circumstance.

The resolve of the public and therefore politicians to abolish homelessness will determine how many men, women, and children, most blameless victims of circumstance, will continue to suffer the wretched and humiliating condition of homelessness. Of course, enacting legislation alone will not lessen the number of homeless. Adequate resources must be allocated to produce additional affordable housing units by creating, restructuring, or improving collaborative efforts between homelessness agency services in the public and private sectors. If these agencies can effectively prevent the instances of homelessness before the actual event as well as to adapt to various challenges facing those currently without a permanent residence, such as the Continuum of Care program, the goal of abolishing homelessness will be closer to becoming a reality.

Works Cited

“Do women and men have different reasons to become homeless?” Texas Homeless Network. (2001). Web.

“Face of Homelessness.” City Rescue Mission of Saginaw. (2007). Web.

“Facts and Myths about the Homeless.” A Place to Call Home. (2007). Web.

“Federal Homelessness Resource Guide.” Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2007). Web.

Wallace A. & Quilgars, D. Homelessness and Financial Exclusion: A Literature Review. London: Friends Provident/London Housing Foundation, (2005). Web.

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• Poverty and Inequality in Modern World
• Poverty and Its Effects on Women
• Social Services for the Individual
• Poverty as a General Problem
• Spare Change: Giving Money to the “Undeserving Poor”
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, October 28). The Homeless in Our Community. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-homeless-in-our-community/

"The Homeless in Our Community." IvyPanda , 28 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/the-homeless-in-our-community/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'The Homeless in Our Community'. 28 October.

IvyPanda . 2021. "The Homeless in Our Community." October 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-homeless-in-our-community/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Homeless in Our Community." October 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-homeless-in-our-community/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Homeless in Our Community." October 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-homeless-in-our-community/.

Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Homelessness — Challenges of Homelessness

Challenges of Homelessness

• Categories: Homelessness Poverty in America

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Words: 523 |

Published: Mar 16, 2024

Words: 523 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Barriers in accessing basic necessities, impact on physical and mental health, systemic issues.

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Homeless Child - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

Homeless children are those who do not have a permanent place to stay and lack the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, and clothing. They are often exposed to various hazards and face high levels of stress, which can lead to physical and mental health problems, as well as social and emotional challenges. Homeless children may experience difficulties in accessing education, healthcare services, and other support systems, which can further exacerbate their situation. Despite the challenges they face, homeless children are resilient and deserve access to the support and resources they need to ensure a brighter future.

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Homeless Children – Essay Sample

If you were able to imagine yourself a 5 year old child, left alone on the street, hungry, thirsty and frightened, surrounded by thousands of unknown people, among whom there is not a single person you can turn to and who seems to care about you, what do you think would you do? What kind of help do you think would you really need? Money? Food? Clothes? A confused and lost kid who has to rely only on himself, – does it make any sense? We are extremely lucky living the way we do, not having experience of feeling in such a bewildering, desperate way but there are many children in Ukraine that actually did.

Living in big cities for long periods of time we became familiar with all its beauty and disfigurements. Things that seem to be wrong are perceived as a natural part of the whole. But when you are a child everything rouses your interest and desire to know more. When I was nearly 6 I got puzzled by the problem of homeless children for the first time. I couldn’t understand who those wandering all around kids were, where did they come from and why they are so different from those whom I used to know. What made me really puzzled was the sight of their begging for money on the streets, striving for help from my parents and other people, who were obviously unknown to them. With time I surely learned the reason, but there was something so wrong about the fact that I couldn’t just ignore it. Through finding out more about the situation I formed my own attitude and my own conviction about how the problem should be resolved, and what is wrong in our actions.

Deprived children- who are they? Hundreds of homeless kids are wandering on the streets in a country where there has been no war for now more than 60 years. Fifty thousands of children thrown out on the streets are AIDS-infected. A question arouses – what is going on in our society and what is happening with us?

According to official information given by Secretariat of Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, more than 130 thousands of children in Ukraine live on the streets. Most of waifs are from 6 to 16 years old (76%), 13% are children of pre-school age, 11% are older than 16. Nearly 80% of tramps are boys. Every year next 20 000 of abandoned boys and girls are added. In general 13 is the age most leave home (Family Homelessness).  I guess that this age has something to do with their sense of self developing to a point that they can think through leaving their family of origin and standing on their own two feet.

Do we often ask ourselves:  What is the reason they have for being homeless, why do not they live at homes as normal child would do? The most widespread reasons for children’s getting on the streets are alcoholism and drug addiction of their parents. They live in such awful conditions and sometimes are treated so cruelly at home, that running away becomes a kind of deliverance; yet, there are also children from happy and safe families, whose escape can be caused by some psychological conflict either at school or at home.

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It’s Too Early to Give Up on Homelessness in America

California has seventy-one thousand shelter beds to serve a homeless population estimated at a hundred and eighty thousand. By basic measures, that isn’t the worst housing crisis in America—the state with the highest rate of homelessness is New York, followed by Vermont—but it means that California is the state where urban homelessness is most consistently visible, often as encampments, much in the way that utility poles are visible where cables are not buried underground. People with housing space need utility connections, and people without housing space need places to exist and sleep. Since 1967, Californians have invested in underground pathways for the grid, on the theory that being shaded by poles, wires, and other essentials is incompatible with the state’s promise of golden landscapes and good living, and much less safe in a storm. You can now walk through many California cities scarcely spotting a utility pole. Homelessness is different. In surveys over several years, voters have named homelessness and housing as the state’s most pressing problems, but a visible crisis of space remains. If all unhoused Californians sought a night’s emergency shelter, less than half of them could get it.

Late last week, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, issued an executive order for officials to start dismantling homeless encampments on state land. The order followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June, City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, which upheld that city’s ban on homeless residents sleeping outdoors (a case that Newsom had pressed the Court to take up). It is presumed to supersede Martin v. City of Boise, a Ninth Circuit decision from 2018 that made it illegal to punish homeless people for camping if shelter beds were not available. Newsom, who is the country’s most powerful deep-blue governor by virtue of his state’s economic dynamism and his rising status within his party, has become one of the nation’s most active leaders in the fight against homelessness, and he presented his order in the terms of left-of-center concern. “This executive order directs state agencies to move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them,” he said. He modelled his directive on the California Department of Transportation’s protocols for clearing encampments away from freeways.

The order travelled better than its pieties. “I’m warming up the bulldozer. . . .  I want the tents away from the residential areas and the shopping centers and the freeways,” R. Rex Parris, the Republican mayor of Lancaster, a small Southern California city that consists almost entirely of residential areas, shopping centers, and freeways, told the Times . Across the partisan channel, London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, who is seeking reëlection in an incumbency weighed down partly by accounts of street homelessness and open drug use in the city , told the press, “My hope is that we can clear them all.”

The idea that leaders bulldozing tents—and the poor people who live in them—out of sight is now considered a winning political strategy might reveal the Swiftian level to which much social thinking has fallen. It is worth noting, then, that the project promises little success on its own terms. The Governor’s order, which amounts to uprooting encampments and their residents, “supporting and assisting” them through contact with outreach services, and most often sending them to something other than shelter or housing, is fated to be an expensive and labor-intensive project in reshuffling and buck-passing in the face of a problem that has seemed too hard for too long. The basic wish of the program—like many in America right now—is Please, Just Make These People Disappear. But, with no permanent solution available, homeless people driven from the north side of town land on the south side, still homeless. Chase them from a city, and they find themselves in the next town.

A few years ago, I undertook a months-long reported study of homelessness in San Francisco for the magazine. As I spoke with dozens of unhoused people, along with service providers, politicians, and community leaders, some of the most unsettling accounts I heard concerned displacements of camps. One young man dealt with upping and moving his life among tent encampments marked for clearance (dispersals are supposed to be announced in advance) while attending community college. Since unhoused people often carry everything they have with them, belongings that are removed can be an outsized loss. Officially, these belongings are supposed to be impounded, like a towed car—in street parlance, “bagged and tagged.” But the administrative burden of bagging and tagging is great, and one homeless person told me that, in practice, possessions were not infrequently classified as abandoned and then swept into the trash. I heard accounts of lost identity documents, family heirlooms and photographs, and medicines for H.I.V. One woman described a friend going through the formal recovery process for her belongings, including a trip to a remote holding site, without ever being reunited with them.

In studies, encampment dispersals, or “sweeps,” have repeatedly been shown to not just be ineffective , for the simple reason that people moved from here land there, but to exacerbate homelessness’s ill social effects . No one—or almost no one—dreams of living an adult life from a tent. But for many homeless people it can seem like the most tenable bad option. Some unhoused people with whom I spoke deliberately avoided shelters, which could mean trying to sleep beside a disturbed stranger screaming in the night. Shelters could also mean bedbugs, personal theft, and the looming threat of physical or sexual assault on one hand and infantilizing rules on the other: the hostel from hell. Some required residents to be drug-free at admission—a policy with obvious appeal, but hardly a feat that can be achieved on the threshold. (Even substance abusers in well-resourced lives work long and hard toward sobriety.) Some shelters, too, didn’t allow animals, and, for a person whose only devoted confidant in a life of instability is, say, a dog, abandoning this one friend for temporary access to a bed can seem an unthinkable exchange.

There is nothing like a sole or easy solution to the problem of housing the unhoused. But clearing encampments without anything like a requisite number of shelter or housing options subtracts space for the existence of the state’s neediest residents at both ends. Studies in California disprove the common false claim that homeless people travel to inflict their homelessness on distant, innocent communities. Migrants relocated by governors in Southern states aside, the vast majority become homeless in the place where they were last housed. The mayor there is their mayor; the governor, their governor; the city—even if they have no dwelling there—their home. These locals aren’t interlopers of the place but products of it as much as anybody else.

California is the country’s most prosperous and economically productive state, with a mean household income of a hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Its median household income is approximately a third less than that, and its Gini value for income distribution—a measure of inequality—is well above the national value and rising, indicating that prosperity flows disproportionately to the economic top. Housing, too: California’s housing prices are, on average, the highest in the nation, yet a quarter of its residents are said to be living with “severe housing problems,” a measure of unaffordability or lack of basic amenities. The rise in living costs in California, as in many other thriving states, has wildly outpaced growth in structures of access to available housing, generative income, and other basic measures of stability that make it possible for many people to keep up with and enjoy that prosperity. In San Francisco, whose housing shortage is notorious, the median rent for a studio apartment is currently two thousand dollars a month. Several of the homeless people I met were working full-time jobs and still could not find their way back into housed life.

An air of exhaustion surrounds the American homeless problem, and rightly so. Over the years, Newsom’s state has in good faith tried plausible-seeming solutions, including adding billions of dollars in new funds for health and housing programs, all without overwhelming success. A national election of unprecedented importance looms. The Presidential candidate now endowed with the task of preserving American democracy is a Californian, and vulnerable to attack as a proxy for the state. But it’s too early to give up. California’s problems are increasingly the nation’s problems. (New York City, which used to hold enough shelter beds for its homeless population, no longer does so, in the wake of migrants bused there from the South.) And progress is being made. In June, Los Angeles announced a ten-per-cent decrease in street homelessness compared with the previous year, the first double-digit decline in nearly a decade and a testament, perhaps, to efforts by its mayor, Karen Bass, to use motel housing for those who would otherwise live in tents. (Last week, Bass came out in opposition to the Governor’s encampment order; the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week passed a defiant motion preventing people in encampments from being taken to county jails.) In my reporting, I found evidence of remarkable success through advanced Housing First programs—nonprofits that set up unhoused people in subsidized apartments with professional counsellors and health resources to help them get back on their feet and gradually take over payment of their rents.

Such solutions take time to work: unhoused people are said to bounce out of housing situations several times before the problems in their lives, which tend to be complex and tangled, start to comb out, and they get back into the rhythms of a self-supporting life. But it does happen, and with time and smart spending, the best solutions, which involve multipronged counselling and persistence, do last. Looking out for the health, well-being, and the opportunities of the entire community is not a troublesome chore that people, their governments, and their enterprises get saddled with on the way to sealing deals for office towers. It is—or ought to be—the proudest work of a First World society. This country at the moment isn’t out in front. In a pinch, it has become clear, Americans will do the utmost to preserve our majestic landscapes. We should feel the same pride looking out across our population, too. ♦

An earlier version of this article imprecisely described people who were bused to New York from the South.

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'National scandal' as number of children living in temporary accommodation reaches record high

Local authorities have called on the government to urgently step in to help the increasing number of people having to rely on temporary accommodation from councils.

Political reporter @alixculbertson

Friday 9 August 2024 15:50, UK

A sharp rise in families living in temporary accommodation has prompted calls from English councils for the government to deal with the homelessness crisis.

The total number of people living in temporary accommodation across England rose by 12.3% to a record 117,450 households in the year up to March 2024, the latest government data shows.

Families with children in temporary accommodation increased by 14.7% in a year to 74,530.

There were 151,630 children living in temporary accommodation. That marks an increase of 15% compared with the end of March last year and is the highest figure since this measure began in 2004.

Meanwhile, single households increased by 8.5% to 42,920.

Follow live politics updates

Councils have a legal duty to provide emergency interim accommodation to homeless people while they help them look for a permanent solution.

More on Homelessness

Prince William believes homelessness 'can be ended' as he marks anniversary of project to eradicate it

Prince William's project to eradicate homelessness to be focus of new documentary

Faultlines: Eight-hour school runs and kids too hungry to sleep - the families caught up in housing 'social cleansing'

Related Topics:

• Homelessness

Local authorities get some funding from the government for this, but many are facing financial difficulties as they are having to dig into their own coffers, taking funding away from other areas or going into debt.

The District Councils' Network, representing 169 English councils, has written to Housing Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to call for the government to make funding changes off the back of the latest data.

Homeless charity Crisis and the Local Government Association, which speaks for local government, have also signed the letter.

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Sky News reported exclusive data from London councils last week that showed the cost of temporary accommodation for homeless people in London had soared by 25% in the past year due to landlords selling up or choosing private tenants.

They are also having to resort to expensive, and often inadequate, hotels and B&Bs - something happening across the country.

This expense is forcing some London councils into potential bankruptcy.

Data released on Friday found the issue of private landlords serving eviction notices remains a major reason for people being made homeless.

A total of 45.5% (17,480) of households at risk of homelessness were in the private rented sector, which is a decrease of 2% from the previous year.

More of those households overall received eviction notices - 6,630 - up 1.2%.

The District Councils' Network letter sent on Thursday says the financial impact on councils is "unsustainable", with many English councils now spending between 20% and 50% of their total net budget on temporary accommodation.

Over the past five years, spending on temporary accommodation by district councils has "skyrocketed" by more than 200%, it added.

Data from the previous year, the latest available, shows £1.74bn was spent on temporary accommodation in the year up to March 2023 - an increase of 9% on the previous year.

With more accommodation being needed this past year, and costs rising, that spending will have only risen further.

Read more: Prince William believes homelessness can be ended Labour pulls £1.3bn funding for AI projects Temporary housing spending for homeless people soars in London

Calls to change funding

Charity Crisis said the financial pressure is impacting on local authorities' ability to prevent homelessness, as resources are taken up with crisis intervention as opposed to prevention.

The new data also found the most common reason homeless people owed a duty by councils needed support was due to mental health problems, with 22,500, or 26% with mental health problems.

The letter has called for the government to:

• Commit to uprate Local Housing Allowance rates annually to keep pace with private rents

• Remove the housing benefit subsidy cap (currently frozen at 2011 rates) - the amount councils can claim from the government for temporary accommodation

• Commit to long-term investment to deliver 100,000 homes a year for social rent for the next 15 years

• Create a substantial capital fund to enable councils to rapidly build or acquire genuinely affordable housing for those at risk of homelessness

• Establish a Unit for Ending Homelessness, with clear targets and adequate long-term funding.

The letter said: "Without swift and decisive action, we fear that more councils will be forced to cut vital preventative services, creating a vicious cycle that will only exacerbate the homelessness crisis and lead to greater costs for the taxpayer.

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"The time for half-measures has passed, a paradigm shift is needed to redirect resources from mitigating homelessness to preventing it entirely."

Ms Rayner said: "We are facing the most acute housing crisis in living memory and homelessness remains at record levels. This is nothing short of a national scandal.

"Urgent action must be taken to fix this. That's why we are working across government and with local leaders to develop a long-term strategy to end homelessness for good.

"Work is already underway to stop people from becoming homeless in the first place.

"This includes delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable homebuilding in a generation, abolishing Section 21 'no fault' evictions and a multi-million pound package to provide homes for families most at risk of homelessness."

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Homeless charity St Mungo's said 70% of homeless people recently supported by its teams said mental health caused them distress or hindered their recovery.

A spokesman said: "Not knowing where your next meal comes from, or if you will have a roof over your head come evening, can cause extreme stress and anxiety.

"However, poor mental health can cut people off from the very services that can help them out of homelessness and from mental health support specifically.

"We really need to bring homelessness and mental health care together and will continue to work with government and local government to pursue holistic responses."

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Guest Essay

The Emotion I Didn’t Expect as a New Parent: Regret

By Miguel Macias

A journalist, audio producer and public radio reporter based in Spain.

This essay is part of How to Live With Regret, a series exploring the nature of regret and the role it plays in all our lives. Read more about this project here .

When friends ask me how I’m feeling 18 months after my daughter was born, I usually tell them that it has been wonderful. Sometimes, though, if I’m feeling particularly confessional, I will smile coyly and say: “Well, this is not the life I wanted. But the life I had before was not the life I wanted, either.” I say it in a cheeky, half-joking way, hoping the gravity of the comment will go unnoticed. But it’s not a joke.

Since my daughter, Olivia, was born, I have cycled through a huge range of emotions. I expect many of them would be familiar to any parent: joy, exhaustion, deep love, confusion, wonder, exasperation, happiness, sadness. But there is another, quieter, emotion that comes up every now and then. It’s a feeling that’s so difficult to talk about, so universally taboo, that I feel nervous expressing it even to the people closest to me: regret.

Since I was a teenager, I knew that I did not want to have kids. I did not budge for decades, and I had quite the battery of reasons for feeling this way, from the emotional to the practical — the biggest one being that there were simply too many things I wanted to accomplish in life, and a baby would surely get in the way.

When I was young I dreamed of becoming a famous filmmaker, traveling the world making documentaries. It hardly seemed like a good way to raise a kid. But I also just never had any interest in babies or kids. Rather, I felt resolved, ironclad in my conviction that I would never be a father.

But things change. I settled down. And at 47, my life didn’t look like the one I had once envisioned for myself. To be clear, I have a lot to be proud of. I do work that I care about as a radio producer and reporter, and I’ve been fairly successful. But I didn’t set the world on fire. I am not traveling the globe chasing major stories and winning Oscars. And over time the reasons I’d held onto for why I did not want to have children slowly faded.

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• Housing, local and community
• Housing and communities
• Homelessness and rough sleeping

Statutory homelessness in England: January to March 2024

• Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government

Published 8 August 2024

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2024

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected] .

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statutory-homelessness-in-england-january-to-march-2024/statutory-homelessness-in-england-january-to-march-2024

This is the quarterly statistics release for statutory homelessness assessments and activities in England between 1 January and 31 March 2024. It also reports on stock households in temporary accommodation under the statutory homelessness duty in England on 31 March 2024.

Alongside this statistics release, the department also publishes an accompanying technical note, detailed local-authority level data tables, a data dashboard that provides spatial and time-series representation of the data in the data-tables, a performance dashboard that provides a high-level summary of homeless figures by local authority and an infographic summarising the key headlines from this release. These publications are available on the statutory homelessness in England webpage .

1. In this release:

Between January to March 2024:

• 94,560 households had initial assessments, up 10.8% from January to March 2023. Our quarterly publication now includes the households who withdrew an application before assessment (3,330) and those that were not eligible or no longer eligible (710) in total number of initial assessments. Some of the increase in assessments compared to the same quarter last year is these new categories now being included in our total figures. Without these, there has been a 6.1% increase in overall assessments compared to the same quarter last year.
• From these initial assessments, 86,520 were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness.
• 38,440 households were assessed as being threatened with homelessness, and therefore owed a prevention duty which is down 0.6% from the same quarter last year. This includes 6,630 households threatened with homelessness due to service of a Section 21 notice to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy – an increase of 1.2% from the same quarter last year.
• 48,080 households were initially assessed as homeless and therefore owed a relief duty, up 11.4% from the same quarter last year. Households with children owed a relief duty increased 6.9% from the same quarter last year to 12,370 households in January to March 2024.
• 17,120 households were accepted as owed a main homelessness duty, up 19.8% from January to March 2023. This reflects the increase in households with children owed a relief duty this quarter (6.9%) and last quarter (11.9%) compared to previous year.
• On 31 March 2024, 117,450 households were in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 12.3% from 31 March 2023. Households with children increased by 14.7% to 74,530, and single households increased by 8.5% to 42,920. Compared to the previous quarter, the number of households in temporary accommodation had increased by 4.3%.

We would welcome any feedback to help shape future publications by completing this  user engagement survey .

Release date: 8 August 2024

Date of next release: Autumn 2024

Contact: 0303 444 8433 / [email protected] (Responsible Statistician: Madeha Asim)

Media enquiries: 0303 444 1209 / [email protected]

2. Initial assessments

Prevention duty: Local authorities may deliver their prevention duty through any activities aimed at preventing a household threatened with homelessness within 56 days from becoming homeless. This would involve activities to enable an applicant to remain in their current home or find alternative accommodation in order to prevent them from becoming homeless. The duty lasts for up to 56 days but may be extended if the local authority is continuing with efforts to prevent homelessness.

Relief duty: The relief duty is owed to households that are already homeless on approaching a local authority, and so require help to secure settled accommodation. The duty lasts 56 days and can only be extended by a local authority if the household is not owed the main homelessness duty.

Section 21 notice: A Section 21 notice is the form a landlord must give a tenant to start the process to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. This is recorded alongside initial assessments.

Chart 1  shows the time series for the number of households owed a prevention or relief duty since Q2 2019.

3. Household composition

3.1 tables a5p and a5r.

Single households: A term used for households without children, which will include couples and households with 2 or more adults.

Single adult households: Single adult households are a subset of single households, where the household comprises just one individual adult.

In January to March 2024, 57,460 single households were owed a prevention or relief duty, up 7.5% from January to March 2023. The number of households with children owed a prevention or relief duty increased 0.6% from January to March 2023 to 28,560.

During this quarter, single households were more likely to have homeless applications taken when already homeless and so are owed a relief duty (61.8%), whereas households with children are more likely to have an application taken when threatened with homelessness (56.7%).

4. Reasons for homelessness

4.1 tables a2p and a2r.

End of private rented Assured Shorthold Tenancy was the most common reason for households being owed a prevention duty, accounting for 14,570 or 37.9% of households. This is a decrease of 1.6% from the same quarter last year. The most common recorded reasons households were owed a prevention duty due to the end of an AST were related to: landlord wishing to sell the property (6,700), followed by landlord wishing to re-let the property (2,670).

A breakdown of households owed a prevention duty due to the end of an AST shows the biggest increase was due to rent arrears from an increase in rent, which rose by 27.6% from the same quarter last year. Despite the large relative increase, end of AST from rent arrears due to an increase in rent, still only represent a relatively small number of households (370 households).

The second most common reason for those owed a prevention duty was family or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate, accounting for 8,790 or 22.9% of households owed a prevention duty, down 9.8% from the same quarter last year.

Other notable change(s) for households owed a prevention duty include:

• an increase of 108.2% in requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support to 1,270 households
• an increase of 48.6% in departure from institution with no accommodation available to 1,040 households
• a decrease of 34.5% in other violence or harassment to 380 households

For those owed a relief duty, family or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate was the most common reason for homelessness, accounting for 13,900 or 28.9% of households owed a relief duty, down 0.8% from the same quarter last year. The second most common reason for those owed a relief duty was Households owed a relief duty due to domestic abuse, accounting for 6,980 or 14.5% of households owed a relief duty. This had decreased 1.7% from the same quarter last year.

Other notable change(s) from the same quarter last year for households owed a relief duty were:

• an increase of 348.1% in requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support to 4,840 households
• an increase of 23.0% in departure from institution with no accommodation available to 2,670 households
• a decrease of 16.4% in other violence or harassment to 1,330 households.

5. Current accommodation

5.1 tables a4p and a4r.

Rough sleeping: People sleeping in the open air (such as on the streets, in tents, doorways, parks, bus shelters or encampments) or other places not designed for habitation (such as stairwells, barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats, stations, or ‘bashes’ which are makeshift shelters, often comprised of cardboard boxes). Rough sleepers in this publication may have slept rough one night or across several nights.

Rough sleeping at the time of Local Authority Approach: Rough sleepers are defined as those who were, in the judgement of the assessor, rough sleeping when they approached a local authority for help.

History of Rough Sleeping: This is a support need based on a history of sleeping rough and does not mean that the household was sleeping rough at the time of approach to the local authority.

The most common type of accommodation at the time of application for those owed a prevention duty was in the private rented sector (45.5%), down 2.0% from January to March 2023 to 17,480 households.

This is consistent with the reasons for threat of homelessness for those owed prevention duties (described above). For those owed relief duty, those in the private rented sector at the time of application accounted for 13.2% of households, down 3.5% from the same quarter last year to 6,350 households.

The most common type of accommodation for households owed a relief duty was living with family (22.6%), which fell by 0.5% from January to March 2023 to 10,860 households. For those owed a prevention duty, households living with family at the time of application had decreased 1.0% to 9,180 households.

The number of households owed a relief duty who were rough sleeping on approach increased by 23.0% from January to March 2023 to 4,760 households, while those reporting no fixed abode rose 0.2% to 5,660 households.

It is worth noting that the percentage reported as ‘Other/not known’ accommodation at the time of application has risen by 58.3% for prevention duties and risen by 73.5% for relief duties.

6. Duty to refer

6.1 table a7.

Duty to Refer : Since 1 October 2018, duty to refer has required specified public bodies to refer, with consent, users of their service who they think may be homeless or threatened with homelessness to a local housing authority of the individual’s choice.

7.8% or 7,420 of the 94,560 assessments made were as a result of referrals from public bodies under the duty to refer. Of the assessments carried out from a duty to refer referral, 92% resulted in a homelessness duty. The largest number of assessments made under duty to refer resulted from referrals by Criminal Justice System Agencies, with 3,320 such assessments (44.7% of total assessments from a duty to refer referral), an increase of 10.3% from January to March 2023.

7. Other demographics

7.1 tables a3, a6, a8, and a10.

Support needs : areas of additional needs that mean the household requires support to acquire and sustain accommodation, giving an indication of the additional services local authorities need to provide to prevent an individual becoming homeless or to stop the cycle of repeat homelessness. Local authorities report as many support needs that apply to each household.

Support Needs

Of all households owed either a prevention or relief duty, 46,430 or 53.7% of households identified as having one or more support needs. The most common support need was for those with history of mental health problems, accounting for 22,500 or 26.0% of households owed a homelessness duty. The second most common was for those with physical ill health and disability accounting for 16,580 or 19.2% of households owed a duty. Other notable groups include those at risk of or with experience of domestic abuse (11.1%), those with offending history (7.9%), those with a history of repeat homelessness (6.5%) and those with learning disability (5.9%).

The overall increase in the number of households owed a prevention or relief duty in January to March 2024 compared to the previous year was driven by increases in lead applicants aged 35 and over. The largest increases were for the age groups 65-74 up 9.8% to 2,700, 55-64 up 7.8% to 7,050 and 75+ up 5.3% to 990. On the other hand, those aged 16-17 fell by 15.5% respectively.

The majority of households owed a prevention or relief duty were where the lead applicant was White (61.0%), followed by households where the lead applicant was Black (11.0%) or Asian (8.0%). The number of households owed a prevention or relief duty where the lead applicant was:

• Asian / Asian British increased by 31.6% to 6,620 households
• Black / African / Caribbean / black British increased by 16.3% to 9,470
• of mixed / multiple ethnic groups increased by 18.7% to 3,110
• White fell by 4.1% to 53,140
• from an other ethnic group [footnote 1] increased by 74.3% to 5,630
• of  an unknown ethnic group increased by 15.4% to 8,550

Employment Status

The employment status that saw the largest increases in lead applicants who were:

• not registered but seeking work up 14.2% to 3,290 households
• registered unemployed up 11.4% to 31,210
• retired up 8.7% to 2,620
• not working due to long-term illness/disability up 6.3% to 12,010
• students or in training up 4.9% to 1,280
• in part-time work up 1.2% to 8,670

Whilst those who were in full-time work fell 1.6% to 11,210 and those not seeking work / at home fell 0.9% to 5,550.

We have now begun reporting on several other employment status options. These are:

• Registered employed, but off work due to ill health/disability (1,340 households)
• Registered employed, but off work on maternity/paternity/adoption leave (810)
• Working irregular hours (1,910)

Those with an ‘Other’ employment status classification fell by 58.5% to 2,770, while lead applicants where employment status was ‘Not known’ increased by 2.4% to 3,860.

8. Outcomes

8.1 tables p1 and r1.

In January to March 2024, the prevention duty ended for 34,550 households, up 3.8% from the same quarter last year; and 53,210 households also saw their relief duty end, which is up 14.2% from the same quarter last year.

Over half of the prevention duties which ended between January to March 2024 (17,720 or 51.3%) ended because the household secured accommodation for 6 months or more and their homelessness had been prevented, the same proportion compared to last year. Of these households who secured accommodation at the end of their prevention duty, 6,560 or 37.0%, were able to remain in their existing home, up 2 percentage points from this time last year. This outcome was followed by 9,080 or 26.3% of households whose prevention duty ended and were homeless at the end of the prevention duty and were subsequently owed relief duty, up 0.2 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

Of the 53,210 relief duties ended this quarter, 16,160 or 30.4% of households had accommodation secured for at least 6 months, down 4.1 percentage points from the same quarter last year. Of households that had their duties end successfully, 75.4% (12,180) were single households, up 1.6 percentage points from the same quarter last year.  27,090 households, or 50.9% of households whose relief duty ended, had their duty end because their homelessness had not been relieved within 56 days, meaning their local authority would need to assess whether a main duty would have to be owed, this is up 5.3 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

9. Main homelessness duty

9.1 tables md1, md2 and md3.

Main Duty : The ‘main’ homelessness duty describes the duty a local authority has towards an applicant who is unintentionally homeless, eligible for assistance and has priority need. These households are only owed a main duty if they did not secure accommodation in the prevention or relief stage, and so main duty  not owed to those ‘threatened with homelessness’. In addition a minimum of 56 days of assistance must have elapsed from a household approaching the local authority to being owed a main duty.

In January to March 2024, local authorities made 26,210 main duty decisions for eligible households.

• 17,120 main duties were accepted, as the household was judged to be homeless, with priority need, and unintentionally homeless. This is an increase of 19.8% in the absolute number of households with a main duty accepted compared to January to March 2023. Main duties accepted represented 65.3% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is down 3.5 percentage points reflecting that a lower proportion of households are being accepted as owed a main duty compared to the same period last year.
• 1,030 decisions were that a main duty was not owed as the household was assessed to be homeless and have priority need, but judged as intentionally homeless. This is an increase of 8.4% in the absolute number of households compared to January to March 2023. These decisions represented 3.9% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This proportion is largely the same compared to the same quarter last year (down 0.6 percentage points).
• 7,780 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as homeless but with no priority need. This is a an increase of 49.6% in the absolute number of households compared to January to March 2023. These decisions represented 29.7% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is up 4.6 percentage points, reflecting that a higher proportion of households are being assessed as homeless with no priority need compared to the same period last year.
• 270 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as not homeless. This is an a decrease of 12.9% in the absolute number of households compared to January to March 2023. These decisions represented 1.0% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This proportion is largely the same compared to the same quarter last year (down 0.5 percentage points).

Other points to note:

The number of households with children owed a main duty increased by 15.5% from the same quarter last year to 8,770 households. This reflects the increase in households with children owed a relief duty (9.3%) in October 2023 to March 2024 compared to the same two quarters in the previous year.

The number of households owed a main duty who were homeless and have priority need due to domestic abuse had increased by 22.3% to 1,260 from January to March 2023, reflecting an increase in households who were homeless or threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse over the last year.

Chart 2 shows the number of households by outcome of main duty assessment for Q4 2022 and Q1 2024.

In January to March 2024, 11,470 households had their main homelessness duty come to an end, up 12.6% from January to March 2023. Of these households, 9,080 households accepted an offer of settled accommodation, up 12.1% from the same quarter last year. Households accepting an accommodation offer represented 79.2% of all main duties ending in the quarter. This is down 0.3 percentage points, reflecting that a lower proportion of households are securing settled accommodation at the end of a main duty compared to the same period last year.

10. Temporary accommodation

10.1 table ta1.

Temporary Accommodation : Temporary Accommodation is the term used to describe accommodation secured by a local housing authority under their statutory homelessness functions. The majority of households in temporary accommodation have been placed under the main homelessness duty, but temporary accommodation is also provided during the relief stage to households who the local authority has reason to believe may have priority need, or on an interim basis in other circumstances such as pending the outcome of a review on a homelessness decision.

117,450 households were in temporary accommodation on 31 March 2024, up 4.3% from the previous quarter and up 12.3% from the same time last year. The number of single households in temporary accommodation rose 3.8% from the previous quarter and rose 8.5% from the same time last year to 42,920. Households with children increased 4.6% from the previous quarter and increased 14.7% from 31 March 2023 to 74,530.

On 31 March 2024, there were 17.8 households living in temporary accommodation per 1,000 households in London, compared with 2.5 households per 1,000 in the Rest of England. Newham London Borough had the highest rate of temporary accommodation in London with 53.1 households per 1,000 households. Slough Borough Council had the highest rate outside London with 18.2 households per 1,000 households.

36,360 or 31.0% of households in temporary accommodation were in accommodation in a different local authority district. 78.9% of these out of district placements were from London authorities.

Chart 3  shows the time series for the number of households in temporary accommodation since Q2 2019 by household type.

Of the households in temporary accommodation, 17,750 were living in bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation, up 30.0% from the same time last year. Of these households in B&B, 12,200 (68.7%) were single households, up 24.5% from the same time last year. The number of households in B&B with dependent children increased 44.2% to 5,550 households in 31 March 2024. Of the households with children in B&B, 3,250 had been resident for more than the statutory limit of 6 weeks. This is up 79.6% from 1,810 on 31 March 2023, and up 9.8% from 2,960 in the previous quarter. Overall, 74,530 households or 63.5% of households in temporary accommodation included dependent children, with 151,630 dependent children living in temporary accommodation.

Chart 4  shows the number of households in temporary accommodation by temporary accommodation and household type.

11. Assessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

Between October and December 2021, these Statutory Homelessness statistics underwent an assessment by the Office for Statistics Regulation. A report detailing the findings of this assessment was published in December 2021.

The Homelessness Statistics Team in MHCLG developed an action plan detailing how and when the requirements identified in the  assessment report  would be met.

These statistics have now been labelled Accredited Official Statistics. See information on Accredited Official Statistics is available via the  UK Statistics Authority website .

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in October 2023 (see  confirmation of accreditation ). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’

Please note that Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing  [email protected]  or via the OSR website.

More information on the UK statistical system is available via the  UK Statistics Authority website . Information about statistics at MHCLG is available via the  Department’s website .

12. Notes on usage

• Statutory homelessness concerns duties placed on local authorities to take reasonable steps to prevent and relieve homelessness to eligible houses.
• Each case included in this report is representative of a household, which includes households with children as well as single adult houses.
• This report only covers those owed a duty between 1 January and 31 March 2024.
• All figures except for temporary accommodation is a cumulative count over the period of the reported quarter, temporary accommodation is a snapshot of the last day of the quarter.
• Data is collected via the Homelessness Case Level Information Collection, submitted quarterly by local authorities. This method of collection was introduced in 2018 alongside significant homelessness legislation; before this statutory homelessness was recorded in the P1E.
• Definitions and a comprehensive breakdown of the quality assurance process can be found in the technical notes . Further information about official statistics is also available on the UK Statistics Authority and the Department’s statistics page .

13. Uses and limitations

These statistics can be used:

• To count the number of homelessness duties accepted by local authorities for this quarter and to compare local authorities and regions in England
• To assess changes in the number of homelessness duties since 2018
• To understand the causes, circumstances, and characteristics of households owed a duty for this quarter
• To understand the number of households and the characteristics of Temporary Accommodation

These statistics are not suitable:

• To estimate the total number of people sleeping rough
• To estimate the total number of people sofa surfing, those in recreational or organised protest, those in squats, or traveller campsites
• To estimate the households that have yet to make a homelessness application and those who aren’t eligible
• To compare with other countries in the UK
• To compare to figures recorded via the P1E

14. Accompanying tables

The live tables are available to download alongside this release. References to previously published tables are included where comparisons are possible.

Initial assessments of statutory homelessness duties owed

• A1: Number of households assessed and owed a prevention or relief duty
• A2P: Reason for loss of last settled home for households assessed as owed a prevention duty
• A2R: Reason for loss of last settled home for households assessed as owed a relief duty
• A3: Support needs of households assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty
• A4P: Accommodation at time of application for households assessed as owed a prevention duty
• A4R: Accommodation at time of application for households assessed as owed a relief duty
• A5P: Household type at time of application for households assessed as owed a prevention duty
• A5R: Household type at time of application for households assessed as owed a relief duty
• A6: Age of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty
• A7: Households referred to a local authority prior to being assessed
• A8: Ethnicity of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention of relief duty
• A9: Nationality of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty *
• A10: Employment status of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty
• A11: Reason for eligibility of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty *
• A12: Sexual Identity of main applicants assess as owed a prevention or relief duty

Statutory homelessness prevention duty outcomes

• P1: Reason for households’ prevention duty ending
• P2: Type of accommodation secured for households at end of prevention duty
• P3: Main prevention activity that resulted in accommodation secured for households at end of prevention duty
• P4: Destination of households with alternative accommodation secured at end of prevention duty*
• P5: Household type of households with accommodation secured at end of prevention duty

Statutory homelessness main duty decisions & outcomes

• MD1: Outcome of main duty decision for eligible households
• MD2: Outcome of households no longer owed a main duty
• MD3: Priority need category of households owed a main duty Households in temporary accommodation

Households in temporary accommodation

• TA1: Number of households in temporary accommodation at end of quarter by temporary accommodation type
• TA2: Number of households in temporary accommodation at end of quarter by household type

TA3: Number of households in temporary accommodation at end of quarter by duty provide

• These tables will now only be published as part of the expanded annual release at end of financial year. The latest published figures can be found in the 2022-23 Detailed local authority level tables .

15. Technical information

Please see the technical notes for further details on the data used for this release. Further information about official statistics is also available on the UK Statistics Authority and Department’s statistics page .

Other ethnic group is defined as Arab or any other ethnic group that is not white, Asian, black or mixed ethnic group.  ↩

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