Section III – Understanding Homelessness Diversity
Why do we need to understand homelessness?
Information about the nature and extent of homelessness equips policymakers and service providers to better plan and evaluate homeless policies and services. Estimates of the number of homeless and their demographics allow us to understand where more services are needed and what types of services are needed. In addition, increased understanding about what homelessness "looks like" in South Carolina may help to identify patterns and issues that can be addressed in order to prevent individuals from ever falling into homelessness. Raising public awareness is critical to addressing the issues of homelessness both in the provision of services but also in its prevention.
Homelessness has its roots in the persistent poverty and disparities in development and access to opportunity in South Carolina. Addressing homelessness is a major challenge for many communities and without information about the best way to address the problem, it will continue to impact the lives of those who experience homelessness and the communities that they live in. (The South Carolina Council on Homelessness in its November 2004 report Blueprint to End Homelessness in South Carolina provides background on the subject of homelessness, its causes, and ways to address the issue.)
Challenges to Understanding Homelessness
Defining homelessness is challenging for a number of reasons. While homelessness is an extreme form of poverty, distinguishing it within the broad concept of "poverty" is problematic. There are multiple definitions of homelessness. There are multiple methodologies to count the homeless population and its various sub-populations. Lack of resources provides another major challenge for counting the homeless population. Finally, geography represents an additional challenge for identifying people who are homeless, particularly in rural areas.
Multiple Definitions: There is no one definition of homelessness but most definitions focus on a household’s housing situation. The federal government defines homelessness as lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) focuses on those individuals who are currently in emergency or transitional shelter or literally unsheltered and living on the streets as homelessness. The U.S. Department of Education includes children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (sometimes referred to as doubled-up). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services similarly considers the "doubled up" population eligible for its programs.
Many providers, policy makers, and researchers believe that to fully understand the experience of homelessness for planning and prevention, it is important to include people who are precariously or inadequately housed, paying too much for housing or otherwise at risk of losing their housing. For purposes of qualifying people for homeless services, however, most service providers and their funding sources including the federal government adopt more narrow definitions of homelessness.
Because this report is intended to support state and local planning as well as to equip local coalitions and providers with the data required by HUD, this study also uses a broader definition that includes anyone who is lacking a safe, stable place to live or is at imminent risk of losing their residence. This includes individuals and families who are:
- currently living on the street
- staying in emergency or transitional shelter
- temporarily staying with family or friends because they have nowhere else to live
- living in substandard housing or housing not fit for human habitation such as housing without running water or electricity
- temporarily living in a hotel or motel because they do not have anywhere else to live
- in jail or prison who will have nowhere to live upon release
- temporarily in a hospital or psychiatric hospital that will have nowhere to live upon release
- at imminent risk of being evicted from their current place of residence
Although a broader definition of homelessness is utilized in this report, information about the different "types" of homelessness will be presented when possible in order to increase our understanding about the issue.