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Housing and Homelessness
Vermont
- Of all the New England States Vermont has the
highest rate of homelessness.
- The Fair Market Rent for a modest two-bedroom apartment in Chittenden County,
Vermont is $1,015, which is 44% higher than the national average. A household
would have to earn $19.48 per hour to afford that fair market rent. At least
66% of Vermont households do not earn wages high enough to afford the average
fair market rent.
- The median purchase price for a Vermont home in 2009 was $200,000, an increase
of 100% since 1996. To afford that price, a household’s income would have
to be roughly $63,000; 61% of Vermont households have annual incomes below that
figure.
- Housing is increasingly hard to find and this has resulted in longer Shelter
stays. The average stay in a Vermont shelter was 29 days in 2008.
Nationwide
- There is no jurisdiction in the United States
in which a full time job at the prevailing minimum wage (either federal
or state) provides enough income to allow a household to afford a
two-bedroom home at the region’s fair market rent.
- A person working full-time has to earn an average of $16.31 per hour to be
able to afford rent on a modest two-bedroom home. That is over twice the federal
minimum wage of $7.25 and is more than 1.5 times the 2009 poverty line for a
family of four with two parents and two children.
- Approximately 37 million people lived below the poverty line in 2007. For a
family of four with two parents and two children in 2009, that would mean a total
household income less than $22,000.
- Twenty-Five percent of all workers are in jobs for which year-round full-time
work does not pay enough to keep a family of four above the poverty threshold.
- One out of every eight US families (15. 8 million total) pay more than half
of their income for housing or live in substandard, run-down housing.
- Another one out of every eight US families (16 million total), live in extreme
poverty, meaning their incomes are below half the poverty line: less than $9,903
for a family of four or $5,080 for an individual.
Homelessness Statistics
- 25% of the homeless population is employed.
- 62% of the homeless population has a high school diploma. 
- 40% of homeless adults males are veterans, 23% of the homeless are veterans.
- 26% of the homeless population has a severe mental health disorder.
- Nationally, approximately half of all women and children experiencing homelessness
are fleeing domestic violence.
- Among the Sheltered Homeless Persons in 2008, 16.8% of them were 51 and older.
- Only 37% of the homeless population receives food stamps.
- Only 33% receive
Medicaid- Only 1% of homeless veterans receive veteran-related disability payments.
- A study comparing costs both before and after the use of supportive housing
found that after supportive housing programs were introduced, there was:
- A 56% decline in emergency room use.
- A 37% reduction in hospital inpatient days.
- An 89% decline in days spent in residential alcohol and drug treatment.
- A 44% reduction in days sentenced to incarceration.
- A near total elimination of residential mental health care outside of hospitals
Sources: Committee on Temporary Shelter, Burlington,
Vermont (www.cotsonline.org), "Key
Data Concerning Homeless Persons in America," National Law Center
on Homelessness and Poverty, July 2004 (www.nlchp.org),
National Alliance to End Homelessness (www.endhomelessness.org),
Vermont Housing Finance Agency (PDF: www.vhfa.org/documents/housing-wages-2009.pdf),
National Coalition for the Homeless (www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/veterans.html)
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