Stats & Resources

WHY ARE PEOPLE HOMELESS?

Housing
- A lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs
- Foreclosures have also increased the number of people who experience homelessness.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the 2013 Housing Wage is $18.79, exceeding the $14.32 hourly wage earned by the average renter by almost $4.50 an hour, and greatly exceeding wages earned by low income renter households.

Poverty
- If you are poor, you are essentially an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.
- In 2011, the official poverty rate was 15.0%. There were 46.2 million people in poverty. 

Factors that help account for increasing poverty:
- Lack of employment opportunities 
- Decline in available public assistance
- Lack of affordable health care
- Domestic violence – Battered women who live in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness.In 2005, 50 percent of the cities surveyed by the U.S Conference of Mayors identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness.
- Mental illness – Approximately 16 percent of the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005).
- Addiction
Source: National Coalition for the Homeless

- On any given night there are 7,784 homeless persons in the District of Columbia:
    - 396 unsheltered persons (i.e. persons “on the street”);
    - 5,790 persons in Emergency Shelters; and
    - 1,598 persons in Transitional Housing facilities.
Source: Community Partnership 

- The median age of single, unaccompanied homeless adults is 49 years old
- 21.6 percent of all homeless adults reported that they were employed
- 55 percent of singles and 15 percent of adults in families reported that they had no income of any kind.
Source: “District of Columbia 2014 Point in Time Enumeration” by The Community Partnership
Policy & Programs Team

Calvary Women’s Services Program Outcomes and Statistics

- Every five days, a woman moves out of Calvary and into her own home
- Last year, Calvary Women’s Services provided more than 20,000 nights of safe housing and more than 30,000 nutritious meals.
- Approximately 140 women participate in Calvary’s programs each year
- In 2013, 100 percent of residents in Calvary’s transitional housing programs participated in the Life Skills, Education and Arts Program (LEAP), accessing educational and life skills classes
- Nearly 75 percent of women at Calvary engaged in addiction recovery services in 2013
- More than 400 individuals gave their time and talents as volunteers at Calvary last year

Statistics provided by Calvary Women's Services

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