Homeless in 2008 in Georgia

What is homelessness?

Homelessness is a difficult and complex issue. So much so, that there is even disagreement over the definition of who is truly homeless and who is not. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines someone as "homeless" if he or she:

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- resides in an emergency shelter or in transitional/ supportive housing for
homeless persons; or
- resides in a place not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, sidewalks,
abandoned buildings, encampments, and dilapidated buildings.

The U.S. Department of Education uses an expanded definition that also includes
people who are:

o doubled up with family or friends due to economic condition
o living in motels and hotels for lack of other suitable housing
o migrant workers living in housing not fit for habitation

The State of Georgia, in the Act that created the State Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless in 1988, defined homelessness as "persons and families who have no access to or can reasonably be expected not to have access to either traditional or permanent housing which can be considered safe, sanitary, decent, and affordable."1 Because of the important variations in the definition of homelessness, this report primarily uses the more narrow HUD definition, except when otherwise noted.

What is chronic homelessness?

About 25% of the homeless population experience long spells of homelessness or have had numerous homeless episodes.2 These chronically homeless individuals use a disproportionate share of public services and are vulnerable to continued homelessness. HUD considers someone chronically homeless if he or she is unaccompanied, has a disabling condition and has been homeless continuously for a year or has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.

What is the impact of homelessness?

Homelessness has a profound impact on the individuals and families it affects including increased health problems, increased mental health problems, difficulty with maintaining employment, separation of families, and so on. Although we can sympathize with people who are in difficult straits, it is fair to ask why homelessness matters to the community at large. Homelessness affects more than just an individual or family. It affects the whole community in a number of ways.

The costs of homelessness include:

o poor educational attainment and development among homeless children
o uninsured medical costs for a population with a high rate of disability
o public safety costs including police and jail costs for offenses such as
panhandling, loitering, or vagrancy
o sanitation and litter control in parks and public spaces where homeless people
congregate
o high cost of emergency shelters, transitional housing, and supportive services for
individuals and families experiencing homelessness
o high cost of crisis services such as emergency room and ambulance services
and inpatient hospitalization for acute and chronic health conditions as well as
mental health crises
o lost wages and revenue from individuals that would otherwise be able to work if they had a permanent address

How many people are homeless in Georgia?

The difficulties of counting the homeless in any single community, much less a large state, have been discussed in detail by both researchers and advocates for the homeless. This report will not presume to provide a single, definitive, and indisputable number of persons who are homeless in Georgia. However, it is important to have at least some understanding of the magnitude and scope of the problem. Fortunately, a significant amount of data from multiple sources is available to indicate how many people in the state face the dreadful prospect of no place to live.

Point in Time Homeless Counts

The federal response to the problem of homelessness is embodied in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, first passed in 1987. The McKinney-Vento programs are administered by many federal agencies including HUD. In order to receive federal funding, communities must organize services within a Continuum of Care umbrella. In 2003, the U.S. Congress passed legislation requiring that the Continuums of Care conduct point-in-time homeless counts once every two years. Accordingly, each of Georgia's Continuums of Care (CoCs) have been engaged in an effort to count the state's sheltered and unsheltered homeless population.

The CoCs that cover Chatham, Cobb, DeKalb, and Fulton Counties and the consolidated
governments of Athens-Clarke, Augusta- Richmond, and Columbus-Muscogee conduct
homeless counts annually or biennially. For example, every other year, the Metro Atlanta
Tri-Jurisdictional Collaborative on Homelessness (Tri-J), comprised of the City of Atlanta, Fulton
County, and DeKalb County, has over 500 volunteers and staff walk and drive the entire 750
square miles of the jurisdiction from midnight to 5 a.m., looking for unsheltered homeless people.

This national best practice canvassing model is coordinated by Pathways Community Network for the Tri-J. On the same night, the Tri-J conducts a census of its emergency shelter and transitional housing beds. On January 25, 2007, the Tri-J count identified 6,840 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in the two county area.

Because the Balance of the State covers 152 counties, many of them rural, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has always performed an annual assessment of persons in shelters and transitional housing, but until 2008 did not have a feasible way to count unsheltered homeless people. Beginning this year, DCA used a sampling methodology and predictive model developed by statistics faculty at Kennesaw State University.5 The methodology took the unsheltered homeless count in 23 counties to arrive at a predicted count of unsheltered homeless persons by county. The count data used in the model included counts from 2007 and 2008. The counts conducted in the Balance of the State were done using surveys primarily collected at locations where people receive services. All of the count efforts around the state, along with the model, indicate that there were over 20,000 people in Georgia who were homeless at a single Point-In-Time (a one-night snap shot) during the last week in January.

The homeless count surveys collected in January 2008 also included a question about the length of time that people had been homeless. Using a weighted average of those responses provides an estimate of over 75,000 people who experience homelessness in Georgia at some time during one year Who is homeless in Georgia? As part of the point-in-time count in January 2008, 1,578 unduplicated surveys were collected from people around the state who were having housing difficulties. The surveys focused on the housing status of the survey respondents and their families (2,041 people) on the night of January 27, 2008. The housing status of the survey respondents and their families is shown in the table below.

The people categorized as "precariously housed" were staying with family or friends or in hotels/motels. These people would be considered homeless under the more expansive U.S. Department of Education definition of homelessness, but not under the definition adopted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Children were more likely to be in families that were precariously housed or living in homeless shelters. About 71% of the survey respondents who were precariously housed were women. The unsheltered homeless were generally middle aged adults, 59% of those survey respondents were men. The sheltered homeless were split almost evenly between women and men. Using the broader definition of homelessness, the majority of Georgia's homeless population are women and children. What causes homelessness in Georgia?

Two factors play a huge part in the lives of people who become homeless: extreme
poverty and personal vulnerability.

Extreme Poverty - People can become homeless because of:

o very low incomes,
o unemployment, or
o the lack of available affordable housing.

Income and the cost of housing

People who are poor face a much higher risk of becoming homeless. Georgia's poorest
citizens, who earn 50% or less of the poverty level, are at particular risk.

Personal Vulnerability

The other factor that plays a role for many people that experience homelessness is a
personal situation that leaves them vulnerable to the loss of housing, such as:

o mental illness
o substance abuse
o developmental disabilities or brain injury
o physical disabilities or chronic medical problems
o family violence
o prior evictions or poor credit
o criminal background

Many individuals and families have personal vulnerabilities that place them at significant risk of becoming homeless. Disabilities, including mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse, exact a terrible toll on people. In the 2007 Metro Atlanta Tri-Jurisdiction Survey, about 58% of the respondents indicated that they had one or more disabilities. Of those, 22% had multiple disabilities. From a survey of 24 cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors estimates that about 22% of the homeless population suffers from a severe mental illness. Domestic violence plays a significant role in homelessness among women and children. In a 1998 study of homeless parents in ten U.S cities (most of whom were women), 22% said that they had left their last place of residence because of domestic violence.

Past experiences and behaviors can also create significant barriers for individuals and families who are trying to escape homelessness. Being homeless can lead to arrests for behaviors such as trespassing and loitering. Criminal offenses such as these, and certainly more serious convictions, can make it difficult to pass a required background check when trying to rent permanent housing. Additionally, certain felony convictions make it difficult to obtain a bed in an emergency shelter. Likewise, prior evictions and poor credit can make it difficult to rent decent affordable housing.

Homeless in 2008 in Georgia

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