Nearly half of homeless have jobs, HUD says
Knight Ridder Newspapers of The Sentinel Staff
Published in The Orlando Sentinel on December 21, 1999 .
WASHINGTON -- The nightclub doorman stands in the line, waiting for a bed at the Central Union Mission, his arthritis aching in the chilly December mist.
Behind him is a young man with a cherub's face wearing a spotless white technician's uniform. In line, too, is Michael Taylor, 36, an ex-con, a father, a recovering addict, a devotee of Russian literature and a day laborer.
None of the three fits the stereotype of a homeless person. All three work at least part time; they just can't afford a place to live. They are the working homeless.
Forty-four percent of homeless people have some sort of jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In its rush to create more billionaires, America's miracle economy of the '90s evidently has left a lot of people behind. Stuck in the lowest of low-paying jobs, they are priced out of shrinking markets for affordable housing. They work, they try to save, but they can never accumulate the hundreds of dollars they need for the first month's rent and the security deposit on even a modest apartment.
No statistics indicate whether the ranks of the working homeless have grown during the past decade, HUD officials say. But those who work with the homeless say they are seeing more of the working homeless as the economic boom rolls on. Sixty-seven percent of the adults who requested emergency food aid in 26 major American cities this year were employed, according to a report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That's almost double the 37 percent found last year.