Homelessness - Rossi on demographics

Sociology 498: Homelessness

Rossi on demographics and homelessness

Rossi's chapter 5 provides his analysis of how the homeless differ demographically (i.e., gender, age, marital status) from the "conventionally domiciled". He begins here to back off from his previous single-minded concentration on extreme poverty. These associations between demographic characteristics and homelessness show that there are other major factors in addition to poverty that must be taken into account in explaining who becomes homeless. Some of these associtions are not even consistent with a poverty story since homelessness is more prevalent among parts of the population who tend not to be poor: Rossi's data from his Chicago survey tell a more complex picture than simple poverty:

Survey data on the demography of homelessness

	Rossi: Chicago		other homeless samples				1990 Chicago Census data
comparison	source table	Chicago 1985-6	U.S. cities 1987	U.S. cities 1996	U.S. nation 1996	U.S. formerly homeless 1996	all city	poor	extremely poor
Demographics:
Gender: % Male	5.1	76%	79%	81%	68%	54%	47%	38%	35%
Age: % < 25	5.2	11%	14%	10%	13%	4%	15%	21%	24%
Age: % 55 +	5.2	19%	13%	8%	8%	17%	27%	24%	15%
% not married	5.6	93%	90%	90%	91%	91%	61%	81%	85%
% black	5.3	53%	41%	46%	40%	41%	36%	56%	58%