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MYTH: MOST HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE MIDDLE AGED |
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FACT: The average age of a homeless person is nine years old. The fastest growing homeless group in the U.S. is families with children, making one out of four children homeless. |
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MYTH: MOST HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE SUBSTANCE ABUSERS OR MENTALLY ILL |
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FACT: About one in five report drinking often and less than one third suffer from mental illness. These groups significantly overlap.
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MYTH: HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE HOMELESS FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME |
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FACT: In urban areas, one in four homeless people are homeless for more than one year. In rural areas, it is 11%. |
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MYTH: A PERSON IS HOMELESS IF THEY LIVE WITH FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS. |
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FACT: According to HUD guidelines, a person is only considered to be homeless if he/she resides in a place not meant for human habitation, or resides in a car, an abandoned building, is living on the street,or in an emergency shelter.
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MYTH: HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE HOMELESS BY CHOICE |
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FACT: More than half of homeless people are homeless because of financial crisis that has occured, such as the loss of a job, divorce, sickness, or any other economic situation that was not intended or planned for.
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MYTH: HOMELESSNESS IS NOT AS BIG OF A PROBLEM AS IT WAS A FEW YEARS AGO |
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FACT: Homelessness continues to grow by more than 10% per year. 152,000 people were homeless at some point during 1991 in Ohio. At least 25% of them were children.
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MYTH: HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE JUST LAZY. "WHY DON'T THEY JUST GET A JOB?" |
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FACT: Many homeless people are among the working poor, a term used to describe people who have worked 27 hours or more and are at or below the official poverty level. It is estimated that one out of four(25%) homeless is employed full or part time. Most of the working poor make too much for government assistance and live paycheck to paycheck, leaving no savings for an emergency fund.
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MYTH: A PERSON WORKING FULL-TIME AT MINIMUM WAGE CAN EASILY AFFORD HOUSING. |
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FACT: According to fair market rent value in 2007, an average one bedroom apartment in Licking County will rent for $533 per month. This means a person would have to work 40 hours a week at a pay rate of $9.51 per hour to afford that apaartment. A two bedroom apartment rents for $674 per month. To afford that, a person would have to make $12.03 an hour working 40 hours per week. Three bedrooms rent at $848, and a person would need $15.14 an hour at 40 hours per week. For a four bedroom renting at $921, the renter needs to make $16.44 per hour, 40 hours per week.
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MYTH: HOMELESSNESS IS ONLY A BIG-CITY PROBLEM |
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FACT: Homelessness in rural Ohio grew by almost 300% between 1985 and 1990. No Ohio county is exempt from homelessness.
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MYTH: VIRTUALLY ALL HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE SINGLE MEN |
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FACT: Women comprise 57% of homeless adults in rural Ohio and more than a third in urban areas. There were more than 35,000 homeless children in Ohio in 1991.
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MYTH: THE GOVERNMENT PROVIDES ENOUGH LOW-COST HOUSING FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE |
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FACT: For every dollar that goes to low-income housing, three dollars goes to middle and upper income homeowners in the form of mortgage interest and property tax subsidies. Over one third of these subsidies goes to 3.1% of the people who make over $100,000 per year.
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MYTH: HOMELESSNESS IS ONLY A PROBLEM IN WINTER |
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FACT: Shelter providers report that demand for temporary shelter remains high all year. In fact, some believe that evictions increase in the warmer months.
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