Families

Homelessness among families is all too common in the United States. On any given night, 248,500 persons in families are homeless (HUD's 3rd Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress). Families who experience homelessness belie stereotypes that homeless people are somehow a population apart. The overriding characteristic of homeless families is their extreme poverty.

Nationally, families who experience homelessness have incomes under 50 percent of the poverty level. Most are headed by a single woman who has limited education. Only half of parents in families that experience homelessness have a high school diploma or a GED. While about a third of parents are working, most rely on government assistance to meet their basic needs.

Families that experience homelessness tend to be headed by young parents and have young children. Forty-two percent of children in families experiencing homelessness are age five and under. Families experiencing homelessness are more likely than their low-income, housed counterparts to be African American.

In most respects, however, families experiencing homelessness are very similar to other poor families. They have similar rates of domestic violence and mental illness. Children who experience homelessness have similar rates of anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and below-average school performance as their poor, housed counterparts. Despite the seeming resilience of children and families, homelessness can be very traumatic.

Fortunately, homelessness among families is typically not a long-term experience. The vast majority of families are in shelter a relatively brief period of time, and do not have a subsequent homeless episode. There are, however, a small number of families who, despite receiving a housing subsidy, will remain in shelter for an extended period of time or have multiple homeless episodes.

Many communities are taking steps to improve their response to family homelessness. They have adopted and refined strategies to prevent homelessness, provided resources to help families pay for housing over the short or long term, and developed Housing First interventions to help families find and stabilize in housing in the community.

The success of communities such as Hennepin County, Minnesota, which experienced a 43 decline in family homelessness, or Westchester County, New York, where family homelessness declined by 57 percent, offers a glimpse of what can be accomplished nationally with the necessary commitment of political will and resources.

For more information on ending family homelessness, watch "Keys: Ending Family Homelessness," a short video put together by the Alliance with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Organizational Change: Adopting a Housing First Approach

This document can help organizations that are planning to use HPRP resources to shift their organization's approach toward a rapid re-housing model. Read More >

Homelessness Prevention: Creating Programs that Work

The National Alliance to End Homelessness has published this guide and companion to help organizations create a homelessness prevention program or improve an existing prevention program. Read More >

Rapid Re-Housing: Creating Programs that Work

The National Alliance to End Homelessness has published this guide to help organizations develop Rapid Re-Housing programs. Read More >

Ending Homelessness for Families: The Evidence for Affordable Housing

This joint paper by the Alliance and Enterprise Community Partners demonstrates the importance of affordable housing in ending homelessness for families. Read More >

Foreclosure to Homelessness: The Forgotten Victims of the Subprime Crisis

In June 2009, the Alliance, along with the National Coalition for the Homeless, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness, released this report. It provides insight into the contribution that foreclosures have had on 2008 homeless populations. Read More >

Homelessness Counts: Changes in Homelessness from 2005 to 2007

In 2007, the National Alliance to End Homelessness released Homelessness Counts, establishing a 2005 baseline for measuring progress in the fight to end homelessness. This report is a follow up to that report. Here, we analyze the changes from 2005 to 2007, looking more closely at changes at the state level and among subpopulations. Read More >

Family Unification Program

This brief discusses the Family Unification Program (FUP) and its impact on homeless families with children. Specifically, it focuses on the intersection between homelessness and child welfare as it relates to FUP and the ways in which FUP can help promote successful partnerships to help families and youth. Read More >

Rapid Re-Housing

Communities will be invited to compete for funds to provide short-term rental assistance, housing placement and short-term rental assistance as part of this year’s Continuum of Care application process. This brief provides currently available details on how the funds will be awarded and how they can be used. Read More >

Housing Vouchers Are Critical for Ending Family Homelessness

Housing vouchers are successful in helping families exit homelessness and can protect poor families from becoming homeless. This paper summarizes those research findings and draws out their implications for housing policymakers.
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Fact Checker: Family Homelessness

Every year 600,000 families with 1.35 million children experience homelessness in the United States, making up about 50 percent of the homeless population over the course of the year. This fact sheet examines the causes and demographics of family homelessness and the programs and policies that are making progress in ending family homelessness. Read More >

Community Snapshot: Westchester County, NY

February 2007 Read More >

Housing First: A New Approach to Ending Homelessness

This document provides a brief overview of Housing First. Read More >

Sourcebook on Ending Family Homelessness

This sourcebook provides resources to assist communities in ending family homelessness. It includes the following:

  • The Mayor's Checklist
  • The Essential Systems Needed to End Family Homelessness
  • What You Should Know About Family Homelessness
  • Tools to End Homelessness Among Families
  • What State and Local TANF Agencies Can Do to End Family Homelessness
  • What PHAs Can Do to End Family Homelessness
  • What Child Welfare Agencies Can Do to End Family Homelessness
  • Family Unification Program Using TANF Block Grant Funds to House Homeless Families
Read More >

Promising Strategies to End Family Homelessness


Family homelessness is more widespread than many think, but it is not an unsolvable problem. Across the country, hundreds of communities are planning to end homelessness, and a handful of communities and many local programs are making progress in ending family homelessness. This paper highlights the strategies promising communities are using to accomplish the goal of ending family homelessness.
Read More >

Family Homelessness: Where to From Here? by Dennis Culhane

A presentation of research by Dr. Dennis Culhane, University of Pennsylvania Professor of Social Welfare Policy, orginally delivered at the National Alliance to End Homelessness National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness in October 2004. Read More >

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