The Different Types of Homelessness

It’s a bitter-cold night with a clear sky and stars glistening as far as the eye can see. A cutting wind blows throw the streets of a dark and dank downtown street lined with the day’s newspapers tossed aside without regard. Dry leaves blow through the gutter making a rustling sound that blends with the scampering of rats pillaging for food. In the doorway of the local druggist he reaches for every newspaper page that blows by to stuff into his shirt, pants, and socks in a feeble attempt to keep the wind and cold at bay. He sits on his knapsack that holds every treasured possession he owns as a buffer from the cold, hard, cement. One bottle. That’s all he needs to warm his insides and settle in for the night. A malnourished old man, with tattered clothes, a knapsack, and a bottle of cheap booze wrapped in a brown paper bag, is what most people envision when they hear the word homeless. Most people are unaware that there are actually categories of homeless; there are sheltered homeless, unsheltered homeless, chronic homeless, and doubled-up is a term excluded from the definition of homeless, but could surely be considered a homeless category. Thousands of shelters exist across the country and they all share one common goal, to shelter the homeless.

Sheltered homelessness refers to the category of homeless persons using emergency or transitional housing. “Transitional housing programs provide temporary residence—up to 24 months—for people experiencing homelessness. Housing is combined with wrap-around services to assist the individual with developing stability in their lives” (Topics). Transitional housing is typically utilized by families and battered women with children. In these facilities the homeless have access to...

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...vior. All but one of these categories definitions include some sort of habitable shelter, as such, there is no need for the “homeless” label. The face of homelessness is changing, it is no longer the unwashed man on skid row it has expanded to include parents with kids in tow.

Works Cited

"The History of Homelessness in America 1640s to Present." Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. .

People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. .

"Transitional Housing." Homelessness Resource Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. .

What Is Homelessness? N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. .