What causes homelessness? You may think drugs and alcohol. And... yet... the average age of a homeless person in America is nine years old. In our community, 600 people every night find themselves homeless. Many are women and children fleeing domestic violence. While substance abuse may be one cause, so is poverty, unexpected medical bills, violence in the home, a fire, flood, or a natural disaster.

What does homelessness cause? For kids, it means anxiety, depression, and poor performance in school, which can lead to issues they’ll deal with the rest of their lives.

What are you doing about it? Through your support of the United Way’s Community Fund, you support programs like:

• The Emergency Service Providers Collaborative, which helped eight out of every ten families served receive immediate assistance and remain in their newfound homes.
• Emergency help, counseling and follow-through for more than 600 teenagers, who stayed at shelters created specifically for children.
• Foreclosure Prevention: United Way funds a series of programs that help people stay in their homes—and ultimately stabilize neighborhoods.  In fact, this past year, we helped 600 families avoid foreclosure.

Click here to read how your support has helped Carlos and his young son, Michael.

There’s no one solution, but people in crisis benefit when we act as one.