Homeless Women and Their Children in the 21st Century

In spite of an unprecedented growth in the economy and subsequent record low unemployment levels throughout most of the 1990s, the number of people who were homeless in the United States steadily increased. A slowdown in the economy that began in 2000 and continued through 2001 magnified the problem. Safety-net programs remain inadequate and a persistent unwillingness to address the lack of affordable housing means that the number of people who are homeless, particularly children, will increase over the next several years. Any longterm downturn in the nation’s economy will greatly exacerbate this problem. In order to understand why this is so, it is important to have an understanding of the forces that create and maintain the condition of homelessness in families and how the condition of homelessness affects the well-being of children.