Riverside County Finishes Homeless Assessment

When you think of homelessness in Southern California, typically images of downtown Skid Row cross your mind. You probably wouldn’t think of homelessness in a county one hour east of Los Angeles.

Sure enough, the embarrassment of homelessness is spreading throughout the Southland, including Riverside County.

A new study—County of Riverside 2004/2005 Homeless Assessment—published by the Institute for Urban Research and Development has just been released.

Here are some of the sad facts:

• There are 4,785 homeless persons in Riverside County on any given day.
• 33% of Riverside's homeless residents are in families.
• 66% of Riverside's homeless population are unsheltered on a typical day with 34% residing in an emergency shelter or temporary housing facilities.
• 67.1% of homeless women and more than 25% of homeless men surveyed experienced domestic violence in 2004.
• 16% of homeless adults surveyed were employed in 2004.
• 46.9% of single homeless persons surveyed in 2004 were chronically homeless.

Here is a PDF file on the study.