Question
What are some risk factors for homelessness?
Answer
There several risk factors that set a person up to experience homelessness. One risk factor is bankruptcy. In our culture we think that bankruptcy is the result of poor business decisions or poor management of one's personal finances, when in fact, the majority of bankruptcy in America is caused by medical bills. Medical illness can lead to job loss, and ultimately eviction. A person who has been evicted, who actually recovers from their illness and is able to get a good paying stable job is still considered a bad rental risk and will be discriminated against in their effort to get another apartment or to get a mortgage.
We know that working full time at minimum or low wage work can keep a person below the federal poverty line. You can be working as hard as you can possibly work and not even begin to approach earning enough money to pay the average rent of an apartment. Therefore, this is a risk factor for homelessness as well.
Other risk factors for homelessness, include children aging out of foster care. Aging out of foster care creates a disproportionate number of children and adolescents who experience homelessness. In addition, being a parent with children makes a person very at risk for experiencing homelessness.
Being a college student is also a risk factor for homelessness. There is an enormous number of college students who are food insecure and housing insecure, living in cars or couch surfing, who have no home because the costs of college/university education has far exceeded the rates of inflation.
It is also important to note that having a developmental disability, being an immigrant, having a trauma history, being human trafficked, being LGBTQI, and being on SSI or SSDI are risk factors that set a person up to experience homelessness.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Homelessness: Myths and Intervention Guidelines, presented by Deborah H. Siegel, PhD, LICSW, DCSW, ACSW
