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Homelessness Problems Literature Review Chapter

Homelessness On any given night in the United States, 407,966 individuals are on the streets or in homeless shelters; 109,812 of these individuals are chronically homeless (Paquette, 2010). The homeless population is ethnically diverse but is majority non-Hispanic white and African-American (Paquette, 2010). Most of America's homeless people are under fifty years old. Over the course of any given year, the majority of temporarily and chronically homeless people are female but most chronically homeless individuals in the United States are male.

Homelessness is strongly correlated with co-occurring problems such as substance abuse and mental illness. More than a quarter of all homeless people in shelters on any given night have been diagnosed with a mental illness; and about 35% of all sheltered adults -- not including adolescents -- had co-occurring substance abuse problems (Paquette, 2010). Among chronically homeless individuals, over 80% have lifetime substance abuse or alcohol problems (Paquette, 2010). More than half of all chronically homeless individuals...

An underlying mental illness might lead to substance abuse and homelessness, or a condition of being homeless might create or exacerbate a pre-existing mental illness or substance abuse problem. The directionality of co-occurrence will differ depending on the individual circumstances, but co-occurrence may be literally true in many cases as the causes of homelessness may be the same core or root causes of the related problems like substance abuse.
Literature Review

According to the substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, homeless Americans exhibit a lifetime prevalence rate of 23% for homelessness co-occurring with substance abuse (SAMHSA, 2014). Research has also shown that homeless individuals with mental disorders accounted for a substantial and disproportionate number of persons who were incarcerated in the criminal justice system (McNeil, Binder…

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References

McNeil, D.E., Binder, R.L. & Robinson, J.C. (2005). Incarceration associated with homelessness, mental disorder, and co-occurring substance abuse. Psychiatric Services, 2005.

Paquette, K. (2010). Individuals experiencing homelessness. Homelessness Resource Center. Retrieved online: http://homeless.samhsa.gov/Resource/View.aspx?id=48800

SAMHSA (2014). Co-occurring disorders and homelessness. Retrieved online: http://www.samhsa.gov/co-occurring/topics/homelessness/

Whitbeck, L.B., Hoyt, D.R. & Wa-Ning, B. (2003). Depressive symptoms and co-occurring depressive symptoms, substance abuse, and conduct problems among runaway and homeless adolescents. Child Development 71(3): 721-732.
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