Homelessness
Homelessness is the outgrowth of many other social problems. These include lack of affordable housing, the high cost of housing in general, substance abuse, family violence, unemployment and underemployment resulting from a lack of job training. Newport News has five privately run emergency shelters. They include: Peninsula Rescue Mission, Menchville House, Transitions Family Violence Services and the Friends of the Homeless family shelter. These shelters maintain a 90 percent occupancy rate. A point in time survey (a survey conducted on a designated date for an annual estimation of homeless people) conducted by the Continuum of Care Council in January 2006 found the Peninsula had 879 homeless people, many of which were in Newport News. In addition to the homeless population were 1,347 individual evacuees displaced from their homes by Hurricane Katrina. Many of these are homeless children under the age of six and are spending these critical developmental years without the stability and security of a permanent home.
While the systems can be changed to prevent homelessness and shorten the experience of homelessness, ultimately people will continue to be threatened with instability until the supply of affordable housing is increased; incomes of the poor are adequate to pay for necessities such as food, shelter, and health care and disadvantaged people can receive the services they need. Attempts to change the homeless assistance system must take place with the context of larger efforts to help very poor people.