Drug Use Often Consequence, Not Cause, of Homelessness

Drug use is often caused by homelessness itself, according to researchers from the United Kingdom’s Northumbria University, who found that half of the homeless people interviewed had previously lived “normal” lives.

More than a million Americans are homeless at some point during any given year, and large percentages of these individuals have diagnosable problems with substance abuse and/or substance addiction. In a report presented in October 2014 to the Economic and Social Research Council, researchers from Northumbria University analyzed the nature of the connection between homelessness and diagnosable substance problems. These researchers concluded that homelessness often precedes the presence of substance abuse/addiction and acts as a significant contributing factor to the onset of substance-related issues.

Homelessness in America

For a variety of reasons, researchers commonly have incomplete information on the number of people in America who are homeless in any given month or year. A report issued in July 2011 by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicates that, on the typical night in early 2010, over 400,000 men, women and children had no fixed address and lived in a homeless shelter, in some sort of temporary housing or on the streets of an urban, suburban or rural area. Roughly one-quarter of these individuals were usually homeless rather than facing a temporary lack of permanent housing. All told, between late 2009 and late 2010, almost 1.6 million Americans were homeless for a significant stretch of time and did not live with a family member, friend or acquaintance.

Men are more than 50 percent more likely to experience homelessness than women, SAMHSA reports. The vast majority of homeless Americans (82-plus percent) are age 50 or younger; people between the ages of 31 and 50 make up the single largest affected age group. In terms of racial/ethnic background, European Americans and African Americans form the largest and second-largest segments of the homeless population, respectively.

Homelessness and Substance Problems

Broadly speaking, researchers know less about the substance abuse/addiction rates among homeless Americans than they know about the abuse/addiction rates for almost any other segment of the population. This is true, in part, because some of the key, nationwide survey projects that track substance use and substance problems do not include data submitted by homeless people. Still, researchers know something about the frequency of substance problems in homeless segments of the population. For example, estimates from the National Healthcare for Homeless Clinician’s Network indicate that nearly 50 percent of all homeless people have diagnosable issues with drug or alcohol use; this rate increases substantially (to approximately 70 percent) among homeless individuals with a prior record of military service.

What’s the Connection?

In the study presented to the Economic and Social Research Council, the University of Northumbria researchers used interviews with homeless people, the staff members of homeless shelters and the staff members of organizations charged with addressing homelessness-related issues to help determine the nature of the connection between homelessness and substance abuse/addiction. The researchers evaluated this connection as part of a larger examination of the link between homelessness and involvement in “anti-social behavior” (which also includes such things as theft, acts of violence, panhandling and prostitution). They undertook their work, in part, because many people believe that substance abuse/addiction and other “anti-social” acts typically start prior to homelessness.

After completing their interviews, the researchers concluded that some homeless people do indeed have a history of substance issues and/or other forms of problematic behavior that precede their loss of reliable housing. However, they also concluded that in a substantial number of cases, homelessness acts as the catalyst for substance issues and other problems. For instance, some homeless people only develop problems with substance abuse/addiction after initially using drugs or alcohol in an attempt to offset the mental/emotional burdens of homelessness. The researchers also concluded that personal backgrounds often vary widely between people who start using drugs or alcohol before becoming homeless and people who start using drugs or alcohol after becoming homeless. Specifically, people whose substance problems precede homelessness have higher chances of experiencing negatively impacting issues such as physical abuse during childhood, sexual abuse during childhood, exposure to a parent with serious substance problems, exposure to sexual or physical assault during adulthood and exposure to other highly traumatic events.

The study’s authors believe that the blanket classification of homeless people as anti-social or socially deviant individuals only increases the likelihood that homeless segments of the population will turn to substance use or otherwise withdraw from a socially integrated lifestyle.