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John M. Bolland, PhD and Debra Moehle McCallum, PhD

The authors are with the Institute for Social Science Research, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.

Correspondence: Request for reprints should be sent to John M. Bolland, PhD, Institute for Social Science Research, Box 870216, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0216 (e-mail: jbolland{at}bama.ua.edu).

	ABSTRACT

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Objectives. This study investigated patterns of "doubled-up" homelessness using an indirect measure based on host households.

Methods. In random household telephone surveys conducted in Alabama between 1990 and 2000 and nationally in 1997, respondents indicated whether any individual had stayed with them during the past year because that person was homeless.

Results. The percentage of Alabama households providing shelter during the past year declined from 16.2% in 1990 to 7.1% in 2000. The national rate for providing shelter in 1997 was 18.0%.

Conclusions. Many households provide shelter to people to prevent them from being literally homeless. As the economy has expanded, these rates have declined in Alabama.

	INTRODUCTION

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Recent studies by Link and his colleagues¹ demonstrate that the prevalence of homelessness in the United States is far greater than had been previously imagined. In addition to direct effects on homeless people themselves, however, homelessness may indirectly affect the lives of many others, particularly the people who provide temporary shelter for those who are near homelessness or who provide respite from the streets for those who are literally homeless. Rossi² reported that a typical homeless family in Chicago spent approximately 4 years "doubled up" with family and friends before becoming literally homeless, and other studies have shown that between 46% and 82% of homeless families lived in doubled-up situations immediately before becoming literally homeless.^3–6 Some studies^7,8 suggest that people move back and forth between states of literal and doubled-up homelessness.

There is limited information about the prevalence of doubled-up living arrangements, however, with different studies estimating the ratio of people living in doubled-up situations to those literally homeless to be as low as 1:1⁹ and as high as 20:1.¹⁰ Census statistics from 1990 place the number of single-parent families living in someone else's home at 2 million. McCallum et al.¹¹ reported that more than 16% of respondents in a 1990 telephone survey of Alabama residents (n = 481) indicated that during the past year, an individual had stayed with them temporarily because that person was homeless. The current study sought to expand these results by examining data on doubled-up homelessness in Alabama between 1990 and 2000 and for the nation in 1997.

	METHODS

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We replicated the methodology used by McCallum et al.¹¹ to produce 4 additional sets of data regarding doubled-up housing, 3 from random household telephone surveys of Alabama residents conducted between 1993 and 2000 and the other from a national random household telephone survey conducted in 1997.

In 1993 (n = 451), 1997 (n = 450), and 2000 (n = 504), the University of Alabama's Capstone Poll asked respondents from randomdigit-dialed samples of households in Alabama whether any individual had stayed with them temporarily during the past year because that person was homeless. As a follow-up, respondents who answered affirmatively were asked to describe several characteristics of the guests and their stay.

The national data were collected during a random-digit-dialed telephone survey (n = 1021) conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Maryland in 1997. This survey involved the same questions as the Alabama survey.

Data for all samples were weighted by sex, race, age, and education to adjust sample distributions to match population totals. Population totals were based on 1990 census reports for the Alabama samples and on the 1996 Current Population Survey for the national sample.¹²

	RESULTS

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The percentages of Alabama households that reported taking in someone who was homeless during the past year showed a linear decline over time, from 16.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 12.9%, 19.5%) in 1990 to 12.6% (95% CI = 9.5%, 15.7%) in 1993, 10.3% (95% CI = 7.5%, 13.1%) in 1997, and 7.1% (95% CI = 4.9%, 9.3%) in 2000. Differences between 1990 and 1997 (z = 2.65), between 1990 and 2000 (z = 4.35), and between 1993 and 2000 (z = 2.75) were statistically significant (P < .01 for all comparisons). This trend mirrored the economic improvements occurring over the same period. Somewhat surprisingly, 18.0% (95% CI = 15.6%, 20.4%) of respondents in the 1997 national survey reported taking in someone who was homeless—a rate nearly twice as high as the 1997 Alabama rate.

Table 1 reports characteristics of those persons who stayed doubled up from the national sample of survey respondents; the small numbers of households taking in guests in the Alabama samples prevented development of comparable estimates. In the vast majority of households in the national sample (73.2%), guests were adults without children. However, among a substantial segment of the national sample (21.7%), guests were families with children.

Table 2 reports national differences in hospitality rates between households with annual incomes of less than $30 000 and those with annual incomes of more than $30 000. Lower-income households were more likely to provide shelter than higher-income households (²₁ = 13.19, P < .001). Lower-income households were also more likely than higher-income households to offer shelter to families with children (²₁ = 15.77, P < .001) and to offer shelter to friends and acquaintances (²₂ = 7.75, P < .05). There was no relationship between household income and length of stay. As before, similar comparisons were not made for the Alabama samples because of the small numbers of households that took in guests.

	DISCUSSION

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Because the economy has expanded over the past decade, we might expect to see the prevalence of doubled-up homelessness decrease and fewer people indirectly affected by it; this is exactly what we observed in the Alabama data, with rates of doubled-up housing decreasing from 16.2% in 1990 to 7.1% in 2000. Thus, a booming economy might reduce the number of people turning to doubled-up housing.

Cross-sectional time-series data such as those reported here allow indirect investigation of how doubled-up housing rates change as welfare reform runs its course and families lose their eligibility for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or as economic declines and expansions occur. Thus, it is useful to continue collecting these data to assess the impact of systemic changes on risk of near homelessness and as a potential leading indicator of alterations in the prevalence of literal homelessness in our society.

	Acknowledgments

 
All of the studies described in this article were approved by institutional review boards.

We thank Patrice Lancey, Joan Esser-Stuart, and Michael Conaway for assistance with project development and supervision of data collection for the Alabama samples.

	Footnotes

 
J. M. Bolland and D. M. McCallum jointly designed the study, and both conducted data analyses and contributed to the writing of the report.

Peer Reviewed

Accepted for publication December 6, 2001.

	References

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1. Link B, Phelan J, Bresnahm M, Steuve A, Moore R, Susser E. Lifetime and five-year prevalence of homelessness in the United States: new evidence on an old debate. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1995;65:347–354.[Medline]

2. Rossi P. Without Shelter: Homelessness in the 1980s. New York, NY: Priority; 1989.

3. Bassuk EL. Who are homeless families? Characteristics of sheltered mothers and children. Community Ment Health J.1990;26:425–434.[Medline]

4. Shinn M, Knickman JW, Weitzman BC. Social relationships and vulnerability to becoming homeless among poor families. Am Psychol.1991;46:1180–1187.[Medline]

5. Weitzman BC, Knickman JR, Shinn M. Pathways to homelessness among New York City families. J Soc Issues. 1990;46:125–140.

6. Wright BRE. Pathways Off the Street: Homeless People and Their Use of Resources [dissertation]. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin; 1996.

7. Wright BRE, Caspi A, Moffitt TE, Silva PA. Factors associated with doubled-up homelessness—a common precursor to homelessness. Soc Serv Rev. 1996;72:92–111.

8. Bolland JM, McCallum DM. The Magnitude and Demographics of Homelessness in Mobile, Alabama. United Way of Southwest Alabama; 1995.

9. First RJ, Rife JC, Toomey BG. Homelessness in rural areas: causes, patterns, and trends. Soc Work. 1994;39:97–108.[Medline]

10. Hopper K. The ordeal of shelter: continuities and discontinuities in the public response to homelessness. Notre Dame J Law Ethics Public Policy. 1989;4:301–323.

11. McCallum DM, Roff LL, Esser-Stuart JE. Measuring the incidence of doubled-up housing arrangements. Soc Work Res Abstracts. 1993;29:31–32.

12. Current Population Report. Washington, DC: US Bureau of the Census; 1996.

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