For most of us, filling out a job application or a school registration form may be tedious. But we don’t often worry about what to put on the “address” portion of these documents.

When you are homeless, however, not having a permanent address is not only conspicuous on an application but can cause you to lose job offers and access to basic needs.

It also creates a sense of helplessness. Just think how you would feel at the end of a workday if you had no permanent address to go “home” to or if your children didn’t know where they were headed after school.

Catch 22

When dealing with the homeless community, it’s common to hear, “Why can’t these homeless people just get a job?”.

The truth is that, for the homeless, securing employment can be a series of Catch-22s. These can include the following:

  1. Most employers require their employees to have an address. The homeless can’t get a place to live until they have a job, but they can’t get a job until they have a place to live.
  2. Many employers look down on gaps in employment. When an employee does not have a permanent address, they are met with challenges—like a lack of personal grooming supplies, a valid driver’s license and places to get a good night’s sleep—which can affect job performance directly or lead to other issues than impact proficiency. This can lead to job loss if an employee is consistently late, unkempt or tired. Frequent job losses lead to gaps in employment, which is suspicious to many employers.
  3. A minimum-wage job won’t pay the rent. A recent study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that a minimum-wage worker cannot afford the rent for a two-bedroom apartment in any state in the country. So, if you’re the parent of a child and need more than one bedroom, you won’t be able to afford the rent.
  4. Lack of education. In most school districts, you have to provide an address so the district can verify your children are attending the right school. And, if you have no address, most colleges won’t consider your application. They also need to know if you meet state residency requirements. Without a college degree or technical training, it’s nearly impossible to secure a job that pays enough to make the rent in most states.

Mental Heath

It should come as no surprise that people who do not have a fixed home address suffer from more stress, uncertainty and emotional issues. Not knowing where you will sleep, take a shower or simply de-stress from a long day leads to depression and hinders personal growth.

They also find it difficult to receive mental health care from a professional so that smaller issues can balloon into larger ones without treatment.

And it’s not just a person’s mental health care that can go untreated. People with no permanent address cannot apply for social services that can be used to treat physical health issues. If you have the flu and you can’t treat it, you’ll be sicker longer and, in turn, can lose any job you may have due to excessive absenteeism.

That goes back to the Catch-22 issues.

Unsafe Environments

Finally, there is the issue of safety and security.

People living on the streets or in cars are more likely to be the victims of crime, including violent crime, than those who have a home. A report by the Associated Press found that, in Los Angeles, for example, unhoused people were the victims in 23% of homicides, and another 14% to 21% of homeless people were the victims of other violent crimes, compared to just 1% of the general population.

But the issue isn’t limited to crime. The homeless are also more likely to be victims of weather-related deaths and illnesses and are often subjected to unsanitary living conditions.

To those of us with a home, those few lines on an application may not seem as fundamentally important as they really are. While having a permanent address is ultimately about having a roof over our heads and a place to live with our friends or family, it is so much more when you don’t have it.

It can mean the difference between getting a job or healthcare or staying safe and warm at night.

That’s why at TORCH, we work quickly to find affordable, sustainable housing as quickly as possible. The first step in future success is establishing a permanent address.