If our incomes fall below what is needed to rent an apartment we may become homeless. This can happen to anyone.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) says in their report The State of Homelessness in America 2012, “The odds for a person in the general U.S. population of experiencing homelessness in the course of a year are 1 in 194.”
But certain demographic groups are much more likely to experience homelessness than the general population, according to NAEH. Upon release from prison, the odds are 1 in 13 that a person will become homeless. A person who is living doubled up with someone else has a 1 in 12 chance of becoming homeless.
The people with the greatest risk of homelessness in this study were kids aging out of foster care. One of every 11 young adults who age out of foster care becomes homeless.
Behind these cold statistics lies a great deal of suffering.