Why isn’t family homelessness a more visible problem?
Most of San Francisco’s homeless families do not live on the street, and if they do, their children may be removed from their custody by Child Protective Services. Rather, most homeless families are transient, living in shelters, cars, in cheap by-the-night hotels in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, or staying temporarily with friends or family members. Many would not be recognizable as “homeless” to a casual passer-by. What are the causes of family homelessness? Many of the same factors that contribute to homelessness among individuals also affect families. The vast majority of the parents we serve at Compass have low levels of education, plus a history of mental health problems, addiction, domestic violence, incarceration, or other trauma. Most have struggled with homelessness and poverty for many years, if not their whole lives. And nearly all the parents we serve have faced abuse during some time in their life, whether it’s physical abuse, domestic violence, or sexual abuse. In ad
