About Homelessness

Homelessness today is a serious epidemic. It affects men, women and children of all races and backgrounds. It is a focus issue for the District of Columbia.

In the DC metro region (or nationwide as indicated):

• Nearly half of the area's homeless are families. (Families make up nearly 5000 of the 12,000 people who are homeless.)

• Children are a quarter of the homeless.

• In several Northern Virginia communities, most of the homeless are in fact families – Loudoun (61%), Fairfax County/City & Falls Church (62%) and Prince William (61%).

• Homelessness is a growing problem in our region – up 6.9 % in recent years. In Loudoun County, Virginia – where the median household income is over $80,000 – homelessness has actually doubled.

• Nationwide, 1/3 of homeless adults with families are employed. In several counties in the DC metro region (Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince George's & Prince William), at least 60% of homeless adults with families work – double the national average. That figure is as high as 73% in Alexandria.

• Many of the area's homeless work but can't afford to buy or rent homes in the area. Nationwide, a family has to make $15.78 an hour to afford housing at the national fair market rent. That amount is much greater in higher-cost rental markets like Washington, DC.

• Nationwide, a full-time minimum wage worker earns only one-third of what he or she needs to rent a modest apartment.

Source: Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and National Alliance to End Homelessness.