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Statistics on Homeless Children & Youth
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13,143 - Number of children under the age of 5 who live in
poverty in DuPage county1
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45,000 - DuPage County residents who live
in poverty; 30% are under age 522
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121,000 - DuPage County residents that qualify as working
poor2
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$901 - Fair market monthly rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in
DuPage County3
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107 - Number of hours needed to work, per week, at minimum
wage to afford rent4
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$8000 - Annual salary for a family of 3 living in extreme
poverty; more than 17,000 people in DuPage County live in
extreme poverty1
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According to the National Coalition for the Homeless:
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1.35
million U.S. children are homeless on any given night.
(2000)
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Families with children are the fastest growing segment of
the homeless population
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Accounting for almost 41% of the
nation's homeless. (2005)
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In 2003, children under the age of 18 accounted for 39% of
the homeless population.
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42% of homeless children are under the age of five.
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Nearly 20% of homeless children lack a regular source of
medical care.
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Homeless children are hungry more than twice as often as
other children.
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Almost 1/3 of low-income families do not have enough money
to prepare three meals a day.
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14% of homeless children are diagnosed with learning
disabilities - double the rate of other children.
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21% of homeless children repeat a grade because of frequent
absence from school.
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Within a single school year, 41% of homeless students attend
two different schools, 28% attend three or more.
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For children and youth identified as homeless by State
Departments of Education,
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35% lived in shelters, 34% lived doubled up with family or
friends
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23% lived in motels or other locations. (FY 2000)
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Poverty and lack of affordable housing are the principal
causes of family homelessness.
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Today, 35.2% of persons living in poverty are children
(2007).
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114.98% - Increase in number of people receiving homeless
prevention services from 2001 to 2005, from 22,266 to 47,8685
Sources: Homes for the
Homeless, The Institute for Children and Poverty, and
The Better Homes Fund,
U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005, National Coalition for the
Homeless.
In DuPage County
DID YOU KNOW?
Facts on Homelessness
For many Americans, the word "homeless" evokes a mental image
of a single male with some type of substance abuse or mental
health problem. In reality, the picture of homelessness in
America today is a family portrait: children and families make
up the fastest growing segment of the homeless population
Two trends are largely responsible for the rise of
homelessness over the past 15-20 years: a growing shortage of
affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in
poverty.
Snapshot of Facts
in DuPage county Illinois
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880
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Phone calls to Bridge Communities each year from
families in a housing crisis |
| 65,000 |
Shelter nights provided by Bridge Communities to
homeless families in 20056 |
| $25.00 |
Bridge Communities’ cost to provide one shelter night
(housing and services) per person6 |
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1492
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Number of people now living self-sufficiently after
completing Bridge Communities’ two-year transition
program |
1 Illinois Poverty Summit, A Snapshot of
DuPage County Poverty 2005,
www.heartlandalliance.org
2 2005 American Community Services Survey,
www.dupagehomeless.org
3 Fair market rent set by HUD, 2005,
www.huduser.org/dataset/fmr.html
4 National Low Income Housing Coalition, Out
of Reach 2005,
www.nlihc.org/oor2005/
5 United Way of the DuPage Area Community
Needs Assessment Report,
6 Bridge Communities, program statistics
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