Employment and Poverty Among the Homeless - Exiting Homelessness

According to the 1996 Urban Institute study, homeless people say that the primary reason they cannot exit homelessness is insufficient income. Of those clients surveyed, 54% cited employment-related reasons for why they remained homeless. Nearly a third (30%) cited insufficient income and nearly a quarter (24%) cited lack of a job.

The data from the Urban Institute study showed how little income the homeless earn. Eighty-one percent of the "currently" homeless had incomes of less than $700 in the thirty days before the study; the average income was $367. Most of the homeless in the study were receiving their income from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (now TANF). Of formerly homeless people surveyed, the median income of $470 would amount to an annual income of $5,640, an amount well below the poverty level for a single person ($7,740 in 1996).

These income levels clearly demonstrate the financial difficulty a homeless person encounters in trying to permanently exit homelessness or poverty. However, exiting homelessness—especially by the chronically homeless—requires more than income. Persistent medical assistance, sometimes for an entire lifetime, has to be available for the mentally ill, or people with addiction and substance abuse problems. Furthermore, without programs such as job training, assistance with general education, help with socialization skills, and in many instances counseling, the maintenance of a degree of independent life for the long term can be very difficult for the chronically homeless.