Many Homeless People Have Jobs

...288 days to go...

When I volunteer at homeless shelters, I often ask people about their plans for the day. I’ve been surprised by how often the answer includes “going to work.”

This has surprised me. I used to assume, like many people probably do, that few homeless people work. After all, if someone has a job, surely they could at least afford a roof and food for their family? Forget the white picket fence, but doesn’t the American Dream at least mean that?

I began digging into the data. In 2020 (the last time this data was included in the King County point-in-time count data), KCRHA found that 26% of King County’s homeless adult population was employed¹.

That’s pretty impressive when you think about the extensive list of barriers to employment that homeless people in King County may encounter, such as reliable transportation, resume gaps, getting laundry done, and the like.

I’ve encountered some of these barriers in my conversations with homeless people this year. One homeless job searcher shared that he was incarcerated, and had to actively disclose that fact in interviews since it would come out during a background check anyway, and it was better to be seen as forthcoming.

I’ve made mistakes in my career too (they probably outweigh successes at least 2:1), but I just leave them off the resume and they disappear. But like many of the obstacles keeping homeless people from employment: he didn’t have that option.

The workforce participation rates among our homeless neighbors are even more impressive given it’s likely harder for Seattle’s homeless to find and keep employment than it is for homeless people elsewhere. Relative to national statistics, King County has a higher percentage of unsheltered homeless (58% vs 36%) and a higher percentage of chronically homeless among the unsheltered population (66% vs 36%). Imagine how much harder it must be to find and keep a job if you are living in a place not meant for human habitation (i.e., unsheltered) and if you have been homeless for more than a year AND have at least one disabling condition (i.e., chronic).

Knowing that a significant portion of our homeless are working, trying their best to provide for themselves and their families (despite significant obstacles) challenges one of the most common objections to helping homeless people. Documentaries like “Seattle is Dying” and books like “San Fransicko” portray the homeless as lawbreaking individuals who choose to ignore societal rules and don’t want help. It’s easy to believe this narrative because the homeless people we encounter are often the chronically unsheltered individuals who are struggling with severe mental health issues and substance abuse.

I want to call attention to another segment of the homeless population that gets much less attention. Regardless of how we feel about the visible homeless, I suspect we can agree that this is a group that is deserving of our help.

1. The PIT count actually cites 21% of the full population rather than 26% of the under 18 population, but I removed the 19% of people who are under 18, who I’ve assumed are unemployed.