Basic Demographics
- Numbers. Approximately 2,929 persons are estimated to be homeless in the Birmingham area. Of this total estimate, 1,414 are survey respondents, 151 are children under 18 years of age accompanying survey respondents, and 1,364 are homeless persons projected to be living in inaccessible places, such as abandoned buildings and doubling up with friends and relatives.
- Family. Seventy-four percent of homeless persons are unaccompanied adults, and 26% are in some type of family arrangement (2% are couples without children, 7% are couples with children, 16% are single parent families, and 1% in some other family arrangement).
- Age. The median age of respondents is 42 years and the mean age is 41. About four of five adult respondents (82%) are between the ages of 25 and 54.
- Gender. Seventy percent of the homeless are men, 30% are women.
- Race/ethnicity. Sixty-eight percent are African-American/Black and 31% Caucasian/White, with the remaining 1% of other race/ethnic categories. Less than 2% of respondents are Hispanic.
- Education. Education levels reflect those of the general population of Alabama, except that a relatively smaller percentage of homeless persons (about 2%) completed college. About 66% have a high school diploma and/or have taken college courses, 6% have a trade school or business school certificate; 27% have less than a high school diploma.
- Income. Median monthly income has declined significantly between 1995 and 2005 from $275 earlier to $200 now. The number with no income doubled between 1995 and 2000.
- Time spent homeless. The median time spent homeless is 8 months. Ten percent have been homeless less than one month, 52% 8 months or less, and 82% less than 2 years. Sixty-six percent report that this is their first time homeless in the past 3 years.
- Military service. Twenty percent spent time in the military; 26% of men and 4% of women. This is a considerably smaller percent than in 1995.
- Place of residence. The most cited places of residence are transitional housing apartments (34%), emergency shelters (22%), and treatment facilities (12%). Twelve percent are staying on the streets and 7% are staying with a friend or relative. In 1995 the ratio was 4 emergency shelter residents to every 1 transitional resident. In this study the ratio is 2 emergency shelter residents for every 3 transitional shelter residents.
- Locals. The area’s homeless are locals. Eighty-eight percent of the homeless were either born and raised in the Birmingham area, or lived here for at least 2 years.
Causes
· Personal relationship issues are the most often cited reasons for an individual’s homelessness.
Chronically Homeless
- Twenty-nine percent of Birmingham area homeless fit the HUD definition of chronically homeless. An additional 6.7 % of persons can be defined as "other chronic" (accompanied persons with a disability who also meet the time requirements for a chronic condition).
- The HUD-defined chronically homeless are two times more likely to live on the streets.
- Overall, the HUD-defined chronic homeless use and express a need for more services, a fact supporting HUD’s well-known assertion that the chronic homeless use and require a disproportionate number of available services. HUD-defined chronic homeless, on average, use one more service (median = 4 vs. 3) and need one more service (median = 2 vs. 1) than others.
Stressors (Life Events and Daily Hassles)
- Ninety-one percent report experiencing at least one undesirable life event over the last year. The most common events are job loss, death of a close friend, family member or partner, physical abuse, or problems with a spouse or partner.
- Over one-third lost a job in the last year. Health is a major contributing factor in the majority of people not working.
- The homeless perceive the streets as dangerous.
- Homeless victims of crime tend to know their attackers, and the perpetrators are often other homeless people. Distrust among the homeless is high, and a disproportionate number of homeless people carry a weapon for protection.
Social Ties and Social Capital
- Homeless persons are generally socially connected rather than isolated. Almost all homeless persons have some local ties that they use for assistance.
- Sixty-six percent have at least one living parent, and 63% talked with that parent in the last two weeks. Eighty-seven percent have friends or relatives in the Birmingham area. Sixty-eight percent have close friends here, while 60% have relatives in the area that they can rely on for assistance. The mean number of relatives in the Birmingham area that respondents say they can rely on for assistance is five, and the mean number of close friends in the area who can help is also five.
- Only 20 % have close friends among the homeless. Nearly 30% say that service providers are close friends and confidants.
- Eighty-eight percent receives at least one form of aid from a close friend or relative over the last six months.
- Only 6% are currently married, and 4% report living with a partner.
- Nonwhites have considerably more extensive family ties and strong tie supports. The average nonwhite respondent reports 7 relatives in the area that they can rely on for help, while the average white reports only 1.
- Fifty percent are members of a church or spiritual community. Forty-five percent attend church nearly every week, while 51% participated in a church-related activity other than worship in the last year.
- Ninety-one percent say that religion is very important in their lives, a figure identical to Birmingham’s general population
- The two most common forms of group participation, other than religious-related activities, are support groups such as addiction recovery, health or mental health-related groups (54%), and the Homeless Coalition (26%).
Physical Health
- Homeless persons (54%) are much less likely to rate their health as good or excellent compared to the general adult population of the United States (75%).
- Homelessness affects health. Thirty percent say that since not having their own place, they get sick more often and 56% say that staying healthy is much harder since being homeless.
- From a checklist of 24 physical symptoms read to respondents, an average of six symptoms had been experienced in the past month. Stress-related, respiratory, musculoskeletal, and digestive/urinary symptoms are especially common, reflecting the daily stressors and risky environments of homelessness.
- An unusually high percentage of homeless respondents (36%) had been hospitalized since homeless.
- Fifty-four percent indicate that since homeless there have been times when they needed a doctor but could not go to one, and 55% agreed they would go to the doctor more often if they had their own place. Inability to pay and lack of transportation were the main reasons cited for not going.
- Prevalence of hypertension. Forty percent state that they have been told by a doctor, nurse, or other health professional that they have high blood pressure. Only about half of those with hypertension, however, currently take medication for it. Thus, 19% of the homeless may have untreated hypertension.
- Prevalence of diabetes. Nine percent say that they have been told by a doctor that they have diabetes. About half of these respondents are not taking insulin.
- Tobacco addiction. Seventy-eight percent are current smokers. The percentage of pack a-day-or-more smokers (20 or more cigarettes) in the total homeless sample is 54%.
- Alcohol and drug use. Twenty-eight percent report having wine, wine coolers, cocktails, liquor, or beer in the past month. Fourteen percent report binge drinking (five drinks or more on days when alcohol was consumed). Fifty-five percent say that alcohol has caused a problem in their life, 78% of these have been through a detox program. Eleven percent of the sample report currently using drugs other than alcohol.
- Unsafe sexual behavior. The homeless population is vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases. Of 105 sexually active respondents, 40% never used a condom and only 30% always used one. Thus, 70 percent of sexually active homeless people practice "unsafe sex." The number of sexual partners in the 6 month period prior to the interview is substantial. Of 105 sexually active respondents, 21% had two partners and 24% had three or more.
Mental Health
- One-third report having been told by a doctor sometime in their lives that they have a mental illness. Nearly half report having some problem with mental illness in their lifetime.
- Twenty-one percent report having an episode that landed them in a mental hospital.
- Seventy-two percent of those who had been in a mental hospital had also been in an alcohol detox program, and 53% of those who had been in a mental hospital had been in a drug detox program. Co-morbidity is thus a significant issue.
- Thirty-six percent of respondents report considering suicide, 31% actually tried to commit suicide, and 45% of those individuals had made an attempt since being homeless.
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