Countywide survey answers question: 'Who are the homeless?'
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

FILE PHOTO

For anyone who wonders who the local homeless are and wants to know more about them, the 2007 Ventura County Homeless Count Survey is out.

Of the 1, 679 homeless adults in Ventura County, 273, or 16 percent, were included in the survey. Of that number, 134 were living on the street and 139 in shelters. Most of them- 69 percent- were men.

Among those interested in reading the survey results is Rick Schroeder, executive director of Many Mansions, a nonprofit organization that helps provide lowincome people with places to live.

"The survey has useful information, such as who the homeless are and what they need," Schroeder said.

With the new information he and other advocates for lowincome people can create better, more helpful programs, he said.

For instance, 65 percent of those surveyed were cigarette smokers. In Thousand Oaks, the majority of lowincome apartments have been designated nonsmoking by the City Council.

"That makes me think we might want to provide them with a nonsmoking program or class," Schroeder said.

Although he thinks it's better for people who smoke to be housed than on the street, the city ordinance prescribes that those who take the lowincome housing must smoke somewhere else than inside their subsidized homes.

How those smokers can afford cigarettes is a mystery the survey did not answer. Forty-four percent said they have no monthly income at all. Of those who said they did have income, 64 percent said it was $500 or less a month.

Forty-four percent said they were substance abusers.

Those who said they'd been diagnosed with mental illness numbered 37 percent.

Seventy-five percent said they were religious. Almost as many- 72 percent- had graduated from high school. About half of the high school graduates had associate degrees or higher college experience.

Almost 60 percent have families in the county.

Sixty-two percent had been homeless more than a year, 33 percent more than three years, 20 percent more than five years and 10 percent more than 10 years.

Ten percent said they were currently married. And nearly the same number said they were once foster children. Veterans number 15 percent. Thirty percent are disabled physically in a way that affects their life and how they walk, eat or breathe or are developmentally impaired and unable to read or limited in other ways.

About onethird had been assaulted while living on the streets.

Of the 85 homeless women surveyed, three were pregnant. Twenty-two of the women said they had been sexually assaulted.

One of the men said he had been sexually assaulted.

Sixty percent of the homeless are Caucasian and 27 percent are Latino.

A majority- 57 percent- are between 40 and 62 years old. Thirty-five percent are between the ages of 25 and 39. About 5 percent were over 62 years old, about 7 percent 18 to 24, and one person was under 17.

"I'm hoping we can use this and other information to develop programs to help the homeless and in homeless prevention," Schroeder said.