Employment and Poverty Among the Homeless - Employment And The Homeless

It is extremely difficult for the homeless to escape their condition without a job. Yet it is equally difficult for the homeless to find and keep good jobs. Health Care for the Homeless Information Resource Center's newsletter "Employment for Homeless People: What Works, Fall 2000" listed the following barriers:

• Lack of transportation
• Medical and dental problems
• Housing instability
• Mental illness
• Substance abuse
• Domestic violence
• Lack of job skills
• Criminal record
• Lack of child care
• Lack of education
• Diminished self-confidence

In addition, the homeless, like other workers, are subject to the state of the labor market. The availability of jobs and the wages paid for the available jobs often determined whether or not people could remove themselves from homelessness.

Wage Barriers to Exiting Homelessness

Of the homeless respondents from a 1996 study by the Urban Institute, 44% reported working in the previous month. Two percent earned income as self-employed entrepreneurs—by peddling or selling belongings. Forty-two percent of the homeless respondents worked for, and were paid by, an employer.

Advocates for the homeless are concerned that this dependency on wages, combined with the unfavorable labor market conditions, actually supports continued homelessness. Since the majority of homeless people do not have more than a high school education, and since a majority of the low-paying jobs go to those with at least a high school education, advocates worry that the available job opportunities for homeless people provide an insufficient base for exiting homelessness.