LIFETIME AND 5-YEAR PREVALENCE OF HOMELESSNESS IN THE UNITED-STATES

Objective. Intense debate exists concerning the number of homeless peo ple in the United States. Previous studies, counting currently homeles s people, have provided point-prevalence estimates of homelessness but have been criticized on methodological grounds. This study reports li fetime and 5-year prevalence estimates of, homelessness using a differ ent methodological approach. Methods. Random-digit dialing was used to interview 1507 adults living in households with telephones in the 48 contiguous States in the fall of 1990. Respondents were asked whether they had ever been homeless:and if so, where they had slept while home less. Results. Lifetime and 5-year prevalence of all types of homeless ness combined were 14.0% (26 million people) and 4.6% (8.5 million peo ple), respectively. Lifetime ''literal homelessness'' (sleeping in she lters, abandoned buildings, bus and train Stations, etc.) was 7.4% (13 .5 million people). Five-year (1985 through 1990) prevalence of self-r eported homelessness among those who had ever been literally homeless was 3.1% (5.7 million people). Conclusions. The magnitude of the probl em of homelessness is much greater than most previous attempts to enum erate homeless people have led us to believe. This finding requires re consideration of inferences about the causes of homelessness that were derived from point-prevalence studies of currently homeless people.