Homelessness damages the physical and mental health of individuals who are homeless.
Homelessness also threatens society as a whole by masking the needs for detoxification, psychiatric hospitalization, and even incarceration, and by fostering disease and crime. There are large variances in the persistence of homelessness. People with less education, people with mental health or substance abuse problems, people who have been incarcerated, and males generally, tend to be homeless longer than people without those characteristics. But even short bouts of homelessness expose individuals to severe depredations, disease, and victimization including assault, robbery, and rape. Studies show that on any given day about one-third of the men in homeless shelters are veterans.