Rural Homelessness

Many people think of homelessness as an urban phenomenon because homeless people are greater in number and more visible in larger cities. If you've spent time in a major American city, it makes sense that the public perception of homelessness has an urban face.

We are in Montana, where the largest city has a little over 100,000 and Kalispell weighs in with around 20,000. We are not exactly known as an urban Mecca. The town of Ismay, in Custer County, had only 19 people at the 2010 census. And even though we lack large cities and massive metropolitan centers, homelessness is just as pervasive in rural areas not only here in Big Sky county, but in smaller communities around the country.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness' Geography of Homelessness report, there are approximately 14 homeless people on average for every 10,000 people in rural areas, compared with 29 homeless people out of every 10,000 in urban areas.

The same factors that contribute to urban homelessness also lead to rural homelessness. These are a lack of affordable housing and inadequate income, which can be difficult issues no matter where a person lives. Scarcity of affordable places to live combined with wages lower than what are needed to survive are not exclusive to larger cities and can lead to rural homelessness. But there are added problems facing people in small cities and towns that city-dwellers are not faced with.

Perhaps the most distinguishing factor of rural homelessness is access to services. Unlike in urban areas, many rural homeless assistance systems lack the infrastructure to provide quick, comprehensive care to those experiencing homelessness. Reasons for this difference abound, including lack of available affordable housing, limited transportation methods, and the tendency for federal programs to focus on urban areas. Per population, rural areas also tend to have higher rates of poverty, only compounding the risk of becoming and staying homeless in those areas.

In other words, the isolated nature of many Montana communities make it difficult to recover from homelessness. We are doing our best at Samaritan House to use the resources at our disposal in Flathead County, which is one of the larger populated areas in the state. Some of our residents come from smaller towns in the Northwest and moving to our area was a step in their process for escaping homelessness. With your help and donations, we can assist these individuals and families who are doing their best to improve their situation.

Statistics and information courtesy of National Alliance to End Homelessness and Geonames.org