Vulnerabilities of ever homeless families and unaccompanied persons: New insights from population data

Introduction: Homelessness research has predominantly relied on shelter data and/or localized samples. While providing foundational insights into the social and health correlates of acute homelessness, this leaves critical gaps regarding homelessness in the general population--particularly problematic for understanding family homelessness, where shelter use is limited and varies by local policies. This paper helps fill this gap, with emphasis on characteristics and service needs of ever-homeless families within a representative state population. Methods/Results: Stratified random sampling based state survey (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System--BRFSS) data (N=14,769) were used to contrast respondents with/without histories of homelessness and living with/without minor children. MANOVA tests revealed consistent and significant differences across these four groups: ever homeless parents reported least education, income, and social support, greatest adverse childhood experiences, unemployment and current food and medical care insecurity, and, relative to never homeless parents, higher health risk indictors (BMI, smoking, alcohol use, incarceration) and poorer physical and mental health. Multivariate regressions indicate that a history of homelessness is significantly associated with current economic hardship and worse mental health status, and, particularly among nonparents, participation in high-risk health behaviors. Furthermore, models demonstrate an ameliorative influence of protective factors such as social support and greater human capital, suggesting areas for prevention and intervention. Implications: These findings enlarge the picture of homelessness as a risk for subsequent individual and family health as well as economic precariousness, and emphasize the need for research addressing the unique precursors and implications of family homelessness. This evidence suggests that policies designed to end family homelessness should include service strategies to counter long-term consequences of homelessness. Moreover, this study argues the value of data sources such as BRFSS for obtaining more generalizable estimates on trends and consequences of family homelessness.