Reports and Figures

 Nationally:

• Forty percent of all renters can't afford to pay fair market rent. In fact, a person earning minimum wage ($5.15 per hour) would have to work 95 hours a week to pay rent.

• About 26 percent of homeless people work full time but cannot afford housing.

• Fifty-nine percent of homeless parents do not have a high school education.

• The waiting list for Section 8 housing is three years or more. Public housing units are virtually non-existent.

• Forty-six percent of homeless parents had lived in welfare families as children. Twelve percent were homeless as children.

• Research shows that a homeless child is five times more likely to be homeless as an adult than a child who does not experience homelessness.

• January 9, 2001—Reuters—“..half of the homeless people [in America] suffer from a major illness or health problem…25% of these [people] do not get needed medical care, according to a study in the Journal of American Medical Association….nearly 75% were victims of a mental health problem, or abused alcohol or drugs.  One in three are able to get prescriptions filled…homeless people were four times more likely to require a hospital stay.”

• November 1, 2000—Associated Press—“According to a Census Bureau report, women make up more than 2/3 of Americans 55 and older living in poverty….Of the 1.7 million people over age who were living in poverty, 1.3 were women.”

• December 15, 2000—Associated Press—“The 16^th annual survey of 25 mid-size and large cities sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that emergency food assistance requests in 2000 rose 17% from 1999, requests for emergency shelter were up 15%, and request for emergency food assistance by families and children rose 16%.  Thirteen percent of the requests for emergency food were unmet, as well as 23% of requests by homeless people for emergency shelter.”

 State of Florida:

• There are 57,417 homeless people in Florida and beds/programs for only 12 percent of them.

• Eighty-three percent of the jobs with the most growth in Florida pay less than the a living wage. Fifty-two percent of such jobs in Florida pay less than half the living wage.

 Pinellas County:

• On any given night, there are over 7.128* homeless people in our community. These are men, women, and children who, for whatever reason, have no place to live.

• 30% suffer from alcohol/drug abuse

• 32% suffer from mental illness

• 6% suffer from both substance abuse and mental health problems