Family Homelessness is a Public Health Crisis

New research from Delaware

Family homelessness is a public health crisis. Families comprise roughly 30% of the U.S. homeless population with about half having children under age five. Family homelessness is traumatic and significantly impacts the health and well-being of caregivers and children.

Building on research published in the June 2023 edition of Delaware Journal of Public Health – Homelessness, Poverty, and Public Health, this study reports that families experiencing homelessness struggle to locate housing, attend to day-to-day tasks, and maintain and obtain employment.

Access to convenient subsidized child care and reliable transportation were identified as supportive factors for locating housing and maintaining and obtaining employment.

To support the health and wellbeing of caregivers and children experiencing homelessness, allowable policy options could be adopted in Delaware to better connect families to resources, e.g., family navigators to work with landlords (housing), additional bus passes (transportation), and reserved fully subsidized slots (child care).

This research report and the full DJPH special edition on Childhood Development & Education can be found here.