Wilder Research has released their initial findings from the Homeless Study, and it’s looking pretty grim. The number of homeless people on this one-day survey numbered 9,452, up 22% from the 7,751 individuals counted three years ago.

African Americans and American Indians are severely overrepresented among homeless adults. They represent only 5% of the state’s population, but account for 52% of the homeless adult population.

More than half (55%) of homeless adults have a serious mental illness, and 46% have a chronic health condition. Nearly half (44%) are on a waiting list for public housing. Nearly 15% are veterans.

Children and youth account for 47% of our homeless population. The number of homeless families with children increased 27%, reversing nearly a decade of decline. The average age of these children is 6. Altogether there were 3,251 children with their parents, 220 children age 17 and under on their own, and 987 youth ages 18 to 21.

You can get more information from Wilder Research, including details about the community presentation scheduled for May 25. Additional detail and reports focusing on specific populations will be made available throughout 2010.

Today we have a guest blogger, Dave Ellis, an impact manager in the area of Domestic Violence, responding to the recent spate of incidents across the state.

Dave Ellis, United Way Impact Manager, Domestic Violence

All I remember that morning in July, was waking up in complete darkness to cries for help. “Where is she?” a young voice called out, over and over. I jumped up and looked at the clock — 3:00 a.m. What’s going on, I thought. Peering outside, I saw a young girl pacing in the rain outside my window.

I quickly threw on my robe and ran outside. When the young girl saw me, she backed up and repeated again, “Where is she? My mom is missing,” she said. “There’s blood on the back door and a window is broken.”

By now neighbors had gathered, and stood, staring at us in the rain—at me in my bathrobe and the young girl who, I’ve since learned, lived across the street.

She was sobbing now, saying again her mother was missing. “Mom’s boyfriend came to visit, but now she’s gone. And there’s blood on the door, everywhere.”

My next door neighbor, Deborah, stepped forward to console the young girl. I called police.  We all waited in the rain for them to arrive while the young child continued to cry.

The police came and took her away. A few days later I heard that they called the incident a “domestic” and that the girl’s mother was in the hospital where the boyfriend had dropped her off. The mother’s story? No harm was done to her by the boyfriend. She had slipped and cut herself and miraculously, he “showed up” soon after, and drove her to the hospital.

This terrible incident happened almost 15 years ago. Since then I’ve worked all my life to prevent these incidents from happening to more women and children. For this is only one of countless other violent incidents I’ve heard about.

Fast forward to this past week—a roller coaster ride of bad news and some good news that efforts are being made to stop the violence:

Bad news:

• A Mankato woman was shot by her ex-husband, in the face, 3 times, in her car, in a parking lot, in front of their 3 children.  He takes another vehicle and leads police on a chase.
•  A woman is stabbed 70 times by her husband. Three of their children watch in horror.  He says she was driving him crazy. That much seems obvious—stabbing someone that many times can only reflect the level of rage he had must have felt at the time. But the larger question remains about what the impact will be on these children in their future without a mom or dad.  The oldest daughter, Brittany, called 9-1-1 while the 13-year-old took the knife and ran into the yard.

Some good news that will hopefully put an end to this violence:

• In early April, 2010, the City of St. Paul unveiled its Blueprint for Safety—An Interagency Response to Domestic Violence Crimes.  This is St. Paul’s unique collaborative response to domestic violence.
•  On April 7, 2010, Hennepin County introduced its Co-Parenting Courts to respond to concerns that unmarried parents need to have the same rights as married couples who are divorcing.

United Way and its partners are working on responses to these issues of domestic violence.  We know that children who witness these violent incidents are the unintended victims—they suffer from lasting physical and emotional harm. 

A recent national survey found that more than 60% of children have been exposed to violence, either directly or indirectly.

In Brittany’s words to the media after watching her father stab her mother, “I think this is a dream,” she said. “It don’t seem real to me.”  All too often, it seems like a dream.  When will we all wake up from the nightmare?

The Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) has released the results of their most recent Job Vacancy Survey, and the hits just keep coming. In the fourth quarter 2009, there were 8.2 job seekers for each vacant job in Minnesota. This is up from 7.7 in the second quarter and 5.6 one year ago. According to DEED,

The fourth quarter 2009 labor market was the least favorable for job seekers during the history of the job vacancy series dating back to fourth quarter 2000.

Here’s what it looks like:

When DEED first started conducting this survey 10 years ago, there were actually more job vacancies than job seekers (nearly two jobs available for each unemployed person).

Other highlights of the report:

• 58% of the vacant jobs are in the seven-county Twin Cities Metro Area.
• 45% of vacant jobs are part time.
• 17% are temporary or seasonal.
• 56% require no education beyond a high school diploma or GED.
• The occupations with the most vacancies are sales, office and administrative support, and healthcare support.
• The median wage (half pay more, half pay less) is $10.86/hour. (Note: A full-time job at $10.86/hour would give you an annual income of $22,589.)

For more information, read the full report. You can also get detailed information for various regions.

I just finished reading the winter issue of Contexts, one of my favorite magazines.

Contexts has much to recommend it. One of the more interesting articles in this issue was on hunger, wherein I learned that for the first time in human history, the world is home to more than one billion hungry people. Interestingly, the article suggests that hunger has less to do with a shortage of food than with a shortage of affordable or accessible food. In other words: We have plenty of food, it just isn’t going where it’s needed (or if it is, the people there can’t afford it). Population has grown, yes; but food production has grown even faster.

In Minnesota, more than 1 in 10 households are what is called “food insecure,” meaning that they have difficulty obtaining enough food for all their members due to a lack of money and other resources. One of the things Greater Twin Cities United Way is doing to help address hunger is working with food shelves and food banks to make systems more efficient—primarily by increasing capacity—so that we can get more food to hungry people. You can read more about these efforts on our Website.

A few other things that caught my eye in the winter issue:

• Ageism in the workplace
• Sexism in food advertising
• Civility in U.S. society (going downhill)
• Redefining retirement

And then, when I went to get the links for this blog, I found the most interesting thing of all: Sociological Images. As you might guess from the title, it focuses on interesting visuals—maps, graphics, etc.—that viewers/readers submit. (You know, I wouldn’t have thought that you could even get 2,800 pigs in a square mile.)

While some of the visuals focus on advertising (truth in advertising, silly advertising, misleading advertising), many are simply good depictions of data, like this age pyramid: such a good way to see where we’re going over time in one graphic. Look at all those 85+ women—by 2050, they will be the largest age demographic!

The Minnesota Department of Health just published new data about uninsured Minnesotans. No surprise here: The number is growing. In 2009, nearly 1 in 10 Minnesotans (9.1%) was without health insurance. That translates into about 480,000 people—nearly half a million.

Half a million people. In Minnesota. Without health insurance.

That’s up from 7.2% of the population that was uninsured in 2007. Now this might not seem like a huge jump to you, but in terms of people, we’ve gone from about 372,000 uninsured in 2007 to 480,000 in 2009, a 28% increase in the number of people without health insurance.  

So who are all the uninsured?

• The highest rates of uninsurance occur among the young adult population: 22% of the 18 to 24-year-old age group is uninsured, as are 16% of those ages 25 to 34. (In contrast, about 7% of those under age 18 are uninsured.)
• Not surprisingly, the uninsured are more likely to have lower incomes: 18% of those living at or below the federal poverty level are uninsured, as are 17% of those between 100% and 200% of poverty and 12% of those between 200% and 300% of poverty.
• Uninsurance rates are higher for Minnesota’s populations of color, particularly Hispanics (29%), American Indians (19%) and Blacks (16%).
• The uninsured are more likely to live in Greater Minnesota (10.3%) than the Twin Cities Metro Area (8.1%).
• Men (12%) are much more likely to be uninsured than women (6%).
• Nearly three-quarters of the uninsured (71%) are employed.
• Most (61%) are potentially eligible for some sort of public coverage.

Speaking of public coverage, there was an interesting article in the Wall  Street Journal a couple of weeks ago reporting that next year for the first time, government programs will account for more than half of all U.S. health care spending (see chart). By 2020, about 1 in 5 dollars spent in the U.S. will go to healthcare—a proportion far beyond any other industrialized nation (many of which have universal coverage).

Healthcare reform, anyone?