Statistics (According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development- https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2014-AHAR-Part1.pdf)

Nationwide:

• On a single night in January 2014:

  • 11% of the total number of homeless adults are veterans (49,933)

  • Homeless veterans tend to be male (91%), single (96%), live within the confines of a city (76%), and suffer from some form of mental and/or physical disability. 4% of homeless veterans were members of families with children. 

    • As troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan, the face of veteran homelessness has changed dramatically- Homeless veterans are increasingly younger, female, and heads of households. 

  • Black veterans are substantially overrepresented among homeless veterans, comprising 39% of the total homeless veteran population, but only 11% of the total veterans population as a whole.

Florida

• Statistics on Veteran Homelessness in Florida:

  • Florida holds the distinction of having the second highest number of homeless veterans in the nation, behind California.

    • 4,552, or 9% of the national homeless veteran population.

  • Since 2009, the number of homeless veterans has fallen by 36%, or 2,583.

By City, County, or Region

• St. Petersburg/Clearwater/Largo/Pinellas County- 550

• Pasco County- 369 

  • Largest number of chronically homeless (total)- 809

• Palm Bay/Melbourne/Brevard County- 333

• Orlando/Orange, Osceola, Seminole Counties- 299

• Hendry, Hardy, Highland Counties- 50 (100% unsheltered)

• Fort Pierce/St. Lucie, Indian River, Martin Counties- 118 (96.6 unsheltered)

“Living on the streets isn't cheap: Each chronically homeless person in Central Florida costs the community roughly $31,000 a year, a new analysis being released Thursday shows.

The price tag covers the salaries of law-enforcement officers to arrest and transport homeless individuals — largely for nonviolent offenses such as trespassing, public intoxication or sleeping in parks — as well as the cost of jail stays, emergency-room visits and hospitalization for medical and psychiatric issues.

In contrast, providing the chronically homeless with permanent housing and case managers to supervise them would run about $10,000 per person per year, saving taxpayers millions of dollars during the next decade, the report concludes.

The findings are part of an independent economic-impact analysis that will be discussed Thursday afternoon by the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness.

‘The numbers are stunning,’ said the homeless commission’s CEO, Andrae Bailey. ‘Our community will spend nearly half a billion dollars [on the chronically homeless], and at the end of the decade, these people will still be homeless. It doesn't make moral sense, and now we know it doesn't make financial sense.’