homeless awareness

“A homeless individual is defined in section 330(h)(5)(A) as “an individual who lacks housing (without regard to whether the individual is a member of a family), including an individual whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility (e.g., shelters) that provides temporary living accommodations, and an individual who is a resident in transitional housing.” A homeless person is an individual without permanent housing who may live on the streets; stay in a shelter, mission, single room occupancy facilities, abandoned building or vehicle; or in any other unstable or non-permanent situation.” [Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C., 254b)] https://www.nhchc.org/faq/official-definition-homelessness/

The homeless aren’t always the people we see on street corners.  From the quote above, someone who is homeless may also live in a shelter or a temporary home.   Homelessness affects people of all ages and for many different reasons.  “Children under the age of 18 account for 39% of the homeless population. 42% of these are under the age of 5.” http://www.grabstats.com/statmain.aspx?StatID=43.

There are 7 billion people in the world, of this between 100 and 200 million people are homeless.  This is about 3% or 3 out of every 100 people.  A homeless individual is “An individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” https://www.nhchc.org/faq/official-definition-homelessness/.

Look out for our upcoming blogs as we discuss some causes of homelessness and how we can help these people.