Homeless Women

Homelessness and extreme poverty are distant realities for many of us. However our brief encounters with the homeless reinforce biases and perceptions that influence our existence as everyday citizens, as we label them "dirty" inadequacies who have made a life for themselves that is less than acceptable. Homelessness is considered a socio-economic status that has typically been dominated by men, striking people living below the poverty threshold. Although over the years men have traditionally dominated this social group/class, over the past 15 years women have altered the stereotype and changed this face of homelessness as a whole. Today, 36.5% of the homeless population is constituted by families who are lead by single mothers. However, since a number of factors are associated with homelessness, consistencies in any racial group will vary depending on their socioeconomic, demographic, and other sociological characteristics. More specifically, as described by Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein in Making Ends Meet (1979), black women constitute between nine and ten percent of the entire homeless population. In effort to establish an accurate opinion of this group, it is essential to understand both the circumstances that lead to homelessness, and the consequences of living in the shelters or on the street. Throughout this analysis, readers will receive a multi-dimensional exploration of the plight of a single, African-American, homeless mothers in America. Today, families make up the most rapidly growing segment of the homeless population. The majority of these families are led by single mothers who are also plagued with mental health and/or substance use problems coupled with domestic violence, which significantly impair their ability to break the homelessness cycle and to function as parents for their children. These structural factors have nothing to do with personal characteristics or disabilities of homeless people (Goodman, 1991). Many

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