The Demographics of Homelessness - The Rural Homeless

Most studies on the homeless have been focused on urban areas, leaving the impression that this problem exists only on city sidewalks. Homelessness is more common in the cities, where the bulk of the population resides, but many areas of rural America also experience the phenomenon. Rural communities have fewer official shelters and fewer public places (heating grates, subways, or train stations, for example) where the homeless can find temporary shelter. Finding the rural homeless is therefore more difficult for investigators of the problem.

In 1996 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in Rural Homelessness: Focusing on the Needs of the Rural Homeless (Washington, DC, 1996), reported that homeless people in rural areas were more likely to be white, female, married, and currently working than were the urban homeless. They were also more likely to be homeless for the first time and generally had experienced homelessness for a shorter period of time than the urban homeless. Findings also included higher rates of domestic violence and lower rates of alcohol and substance abuse.

The 1996 Urban Institute study determined that 21% of all homeless people in their study lived in suburban areas, and 9% lived in rural communities. This study agreed with the USDA's study on many points. The rural homeless surveyed were more likely to be working, or to have worked recently, than the urban homeless—65% of the rural homeless had worked for pay in the last month. Homeless people living in rural areas were also more likely to be experiencing their first spell of homelessness (60%). In 55% of the cases, the homeless period lasted three months or less.

Patricia A. Post, in Hard to Reach: Rural Homelessness and Health Care (Nashville, TN: National Health Care for the Homeless Council, January 2002), argued that rural residents typically deal with a lack of permanent housing not by sleeping on the streets, like their urban counterparts, but by first moving in with a series of friends, secondly moving into abandoned shacks, cars, or campgrounds, and lastly moving to cities in search of employment. They also differ from urban homeless people in many ways: they have less education, typically hold temporary jobs with no benefits, are less likely to receive government assistance or have health insurance, and are more likely to have been incarcerated for a period of time.

Several types of rural areas generate higher-than-average levels of homelessness, including regions that:

• Are primarily agricultural—residents often lose their livelihood because of reduced demand for farm labor or because of a shrinking service sector
• Depend on declining extractive industries, such as mining or timber
• Are experiencing economic growth—new or expanding industrial plants often attract more job seekers than can be absorbed
• Have persistent poverty, such as Appalachia, where the young and able-bodied may have to relocate before they can find work