Homeless population: characterization and contextualization by census research

Abstract

Objectives: to analyze characteristics of homeless people and factors associated with living on the streets. Methods: a census-type sectional survey carried out between 2015 and 2018, in the municipality of Maringá-Paraná. A total of 701 homeless answered a structured questionnaire with sociodemographic data, living conditions, and drug use. We used Pearson’s correlation test for the association analysis of the variables at a 95% confidence level. Results: men (90.7%) the average age of 37.7 years had been homeless for an average of 5.39 years. Most had little education (54.2%), and homelessness was due to drug use (47.2%) and family disagreements (38.9%). Conclusions: drug use and family disagreements were the main reasons for homelessness. Time on the street, gender, and drugs were associated with a negative correlation to be homeless; and age, mean daily income, the number of daily meals, having been in prison, and having an income source were associated with positive correlation.

Epidemiological profile of the homeless population assisted by voluntary initiative and the social impact on access to healthcare: an investigative study in Curitiba, Brazil

“…In agreement with previous published Brazilian data [11][12][13][14][15][16], the studied population is composed predominantly of single and heterosexual men, with an average age of 30 to 40 years old. However, a irst divergence observed in our study was ethnicity, which attributed a predominance of whites, in disparity of most studies found in the literature [11,13,14,[16][17][18][19].…”

“…In agreement with previous published Brazilian data [11][12][13][14][15][16], the studied population is composed predominantly of single and heterosexual men, with an average age of 30 to 40 years old. However, a irst divergence observed in our study was ethnicity, which attributed a predominance of whites, in disparity of most studies found in the literature [11,13,14,[16][17][18][19]. This discrepancy is probably due to the ethnic diversity of the locations considered and the few samples of this population in some studies, such as a study about the Brazilian Midwest region [19], with 43 individuals, and another about the South region [18], with only ten.…”

“…Something curious about the average duration in years of living on the streets was that in our study we found a predominance of less than a year (of individuals living in this condition), while studies from the central-west region reported an average time of 90 days [22,23,25], from the southern region, less than ive years [11] and from the northeast, 13 years [15]. We were unable to establish an adequate reason for such variability.…”

“…The homeless population of Curitiba has a limited elementary school education pro ile, regardless of its conclusion, a similar fact found by Halpern, et al [17] and by Hungaro, et al [11] who carried out their studies in Brazilian capitals in the Southeast, Midwest, Northeast and South regions in the years 2011 to 2012 and 2015 to 2018, respectively. Two other studies [20,21], showed a prevalence of incomplete elementary education, and a third 15 mentions only 'elementary education pro ile'.…”

“…Faria, et al [20] stated that in Belém, northern Brazil, individuals sleep preferentially on the streets and in abandoned buildings. Hungaro, et al [11] brings, in addition to those already mentioned, cheap accommodations, motels and hostels.…”