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Characteristics, Causes, and Costs of Homelessness in Orange County

This study examines the characteristics, causes, and costs of homelessness in Orange County, focusing on the differences between street and sheltered homeless and those housed in different housing categories. It also explores demographic and biographic correlates associated with homelessness and housing.

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Characteristics, Causes, and Costs of Homelessness in Orange County

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  1. THE CHARACTERISTICS, CAUSES, & COSTS OF HOMELESSNESS IN ORANGE COUNTY*Dr. David A. Snow and Dr. Rachel E. GoldbergDepartment of SociologyUniversity of California, Irvine *Data from cost study – “Homelessness in Orange County: The Costs to Our Community” – co-sponsored by OCUW, Jamboree, & UCI, with the support of ACC-OC, 2-1-1 OC, Hospital Association of Southern California, and other key service providers.

  2. Objectives of Cost Study • Primary Objective: To estimate the costs of homelessness in Orange County with a focus on the cost differences between the street and sheltered homeless and those now housed in the different categories of housing -- in Interim/Bridge housing, Rapid Rehousing, and Permanent Supportive Housing • Secondary Objective: To construct a profile of the demographic and biographic correlates associated with the different categories of homelessness and housing, and to illuminate the causes of homelessness.

  3. WHO COUNTS AS A HOMELESS PERSON? HUD Definition of Homelessness PEOPLE • Living/sleeping in public or privates places not intended for human habitation – e.g., sidewalks, building alcoves, alleys, under bridges, abandoned buildings, parks, weed patches (often called “sleeping rough”) • Sleeping in shelters • Living/sleeping in vehicles – e.g., cars, vans, campers • Evicted from their homes, discharged from an institution like a hospital or a prison, or are fleeing domestic or sexual violence and can’t find housing. • Spending a few nights in a seedy motel or hotel with no place else to go • Doubling-up – e.g., living with others • Living in temporary transitional or supportive housing after being on the streets • Living in unserviced, makeshift, substandard housing – e.g., favelas in Brazil • Living in refugee and disaster emergency camps • Living itinerant groups – e.g., nomads, gypsies, refugees • Living on squats or squatting communities Our Definition of Homelessness

  4. KEY TERMS TO KEEP IN MIND • Emergency Shelter: a location to sleep overnight, often on a first come, first served basis. • Bridge Housing: temporary residence, ranging from 6 to 24 months. It typically includes supportive services to help residents secure some stability and enhance their employability. Also known as “interim” or “transitional” housing. • Rapid Re-Housing: moves people quickly out of homelessness and into their own housing, while providing temporary time-limited assistance that covers move-in costs, deposits, and rental and/or utility assistance, along with case management. • Permanent Supportive Housing: a program designed to provide housing and supportive services on a long-term basis to formerly chronic homeless people. • Chronic Homelessness: • A homeless individual/head of household with one or more disabilities • Must have been homeless for at least 12 months or on at least 4 separate occasions in the last 3 years

  5. COST STUDY DESIGN Costs Street Homeless Municipalities Institutional- Organizational Cost Data Interview- Based Biographic and Service Utilization Data Shelters Hospitals with ERs Transitional/ Interim Non-Governmental Agencies Rapid County PSH

  6. INTERVIEW SETTINGS/CONTEXTS

  7. INTERVIEW SETTINGS FOR HOUSING CONFIGURATIONS

  8. WHO ARE OC’s Homeless Residents? Key Demographic & Biographic Characteristics By Gender * Differences between men and women are statistically significant at the p<0.05 level

  9. DIMENSIONS OF LIVING ON THE STREETS

  10. Employment and Earnings by Housing Category * Differences between housing categories are statistically significant at p<0.05 level

  11. Sources of Income in Last Monthby Housing category

  12. VICTIMIZATION AMONG THE HOMELESS, BY GENDER

  13. Average (Mean) Criminal Justice Contacts in Past Year, by Gender Note: Reports from the last month are annualized.

  14. Differences in Patterns of Behavior and Wellbeing Across Housing Categories

  15. Number of Chronic Physical Health Conditions Reported by Street/Shelter Homeless, by Length of Time on the Street Note: Chronic physical health conditions include arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive lung disease, cirrhosis or severe liver damage, diabetes, emphysema, epilepsy or other seizure disorder, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, leukemia, and lymphoma

  16. PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CHALLENGES OF HOMELESSNESS, BY GENDER

  17. CAUSES OF HOMELESSNESS IN ORANGE COUNTY

  18. HOMELESSNESS & MUSICAL CHAIRS • In thinking about the causes of homelessness, think about the game of musical chairs, with the chairs connoting housing and the people left standing as the homeless. • Then ask two questions? (1) What causes the chairs (housing) to be removed or in short supply? (2) What causes some people (the homeless) rather than others to be left standing?

  19. In an evidence-based world, the answer to these two questions resides in the intersection between two sets of factors: (1) the structural antecedents of limited or inaccessible housing (the chairs) (2) personal, biographic factors which accentuate vulnerability to being left standing (the homeless)

  20. The 250+ homeless we interviewed account for their homelessness in one or more of these two sets of factors: STRUCTURAL ANTECEDENTS • Securing or retaining jobs with sustainable wages: 40% • Finding or retaining affordable housing: 36% BIOGRAPHIC VULNERABILITIES • Family issues (e.g., sexual violence, abuse, death): 28% • Drugs/alcohol: 22% • Mental Illness: 17% • Physical Health: 13% • Released from Prison/Jail: 7%

  21. INFLATION-ADJUSTED MEDIAN RENT INCREASED 24% WHILE MEDIAN RENTER INCOME DECLINED 10% FROM 2000 TO 2014

  22. Orange County is among the top 10 least affordable metropolitan areas in the nation! Source: Out of Reach, National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2016.

  23. Wages for Occupations with the Most Job OpeningsOrange County, 2010 - 2020 Housing Wage = $34.87/hr. for 2-bedroom apt. Minimum Wage = $10.00/hr. Sources: 2010-2020 Occupations With the Most Job Openings, Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine Metro. Division, Employment Development Dept., Nov. 20, 2012. 2017 Out of Reach, National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2017.

  24. Reasons For Homelessness: Women(Results from latent class cluster analysis – 3 cluster solution)

  25. Reasons For Homelessness: Men(Results from latent class cluster analysis – 3 cluster solution)

  26. Abused by Member of Household During Childhood, by Respondent gender

  27. Abuse Across the Life Course by Gender

  28. Other Selected Childhood conditions, BY GENDER * Differences between men and women are statistically significant at the p<0.05 level

  29. COSTS OF HOMELESSNESS IN ORANGE COUNTY

  30. Annual Cost of Addressing Homelessness Across Five Institutional Sectors in OC:_________ $299M • Notes: • Housing agencies are agencies providing Emergency Shelter, Bridge Housing, Rapid Rehousing, or Permanent Supportive Housing services. • The figure provided totals the program budget spent on homelessness across these agencies.

  31. HEALTH CARE CLUSTER COSTS

  32. Cost FINDINGS ON OC HOSPITAL ER & inpatient (CHARGES) Note: Only one major OC hospital provided detailed cost data. The above are aggregated figures across all OC hospitals and emergency rooms.

  33. HOUSINGFIRST MODEL $ Philosophy: People should be permanently housed AND provided support services as quickly as possible. Homelessness is viewed first and foremost a housing problem and is treated as such. E.g. Permanent Supportive Housing and Rapid Re-Housing.

  34. Average (Mean) Service Utilization & Criminal Justice Contacts in Past YEAR, Comparing Chronically Homeless with those in Permanent Supportive Housing Monthly estimates are annualized. * Differences between housing categories are statistically significant at p<0.05 level.

  35. Chronic street vs chronic housed Average costs per person, per year Housing AND Support Services Notes: Cost estimates consider utilization of soup kitchens, food pantries, substance abuse services, ambulance services, ER services, inpatient hospital stays, mental health services, other health services, motel/voucher/rental assistance services, shelter nights, transitional housing nights, rapid rehousing nights, PSH nights, policing, nights in jail/prison. These estimates do not capture other potential costs, including probation, changes in property values, park maintenance costs, etc. Reports from the last month are annualized.

  36. Chronic vs non-chronic on the streetsAverage costs per person, per year Notes: Cost estimates consider utilization of soup kitchens, food pantries, substance abuse services, ambulance services, ER services, inpatient hospital stays, mental health services, other health services, motel/voucher/rental assistance services, shelter nights, transitional housing nights, rapid rehousing nights, PSH nights, policing, nights in jail/prison. These estimates do not capture other potential costs, including probation, changes in property values, park maintenance costs, etc. Reports from the last month are annualized.

  37. Non-Chronic street vs non-chronic in rapid re-housing Average costs per person, per year Housing AND Support Services Notes: Cost estimates consider utilization of soup kitchens, food pantries, substance abuse services, ambulance services, ER services, inpatient hospital stays, mental health services, other health services, motel/voucher/rental assistance services, shelter nights, transitional housing nights, rapid rehousing nights, PSH nights, policing, nights in jail/prison. These estimates do not capture other potential costs, including probation, changes in property values, park maintenance costs, etc. Reports from the last month are annualized.

  38. MOST COSTLY 10% OF CHRONIC HOMELESS

  39. Mean Cost Per Person for Health Service Utilization in Last Year, by Housing Configuration Note: Cost estimate considers utilization of substance abuse services, ambulance services, ER services, inpatient hospital stays, mental health services, and other health services. Reports from the last month are annualized.

  40. MAJOR TAKE-AWAYS • Homelessness is a situation in which some people find themselves rather than a characteristic of the persons so situated. It is a social condition rather than a social type. • The primary cause of homelessness for both men and women is the gap between the cost of rental housing and the availability of living wages to access that housing. • Thus, the homeless are generally people for whom there are no available or accessible housing slots because of the intersection of structural factors and personal, biographic vulnerabilities. • The cost of homelessness decreases markedly with the provision of housing, and this cost reduction is most pronounced for the chronic homeless in need of wrap-around health care • Many of the troublesome issues associated with homelessness disappear or diminish markedly with the provision of housing. SO WHY NOT HOUSING FIRST??

  41. THANK YOU!

  42. COST SAVINGS THROUGH PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING • Costs for services for those who are chronically homeless are 50% lower per person per year when people are housed ($51,587 including housing costs) vs living on the streets ($100,759) • Chronically homeless when housed have: 78% fewer ambulance rides, almost 100% fewer tickets, and 100% fewer arrests

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