Demographics

Nazareth Housing has been a provider of family shelter services for the past 20 years and in that time we developed a specialized focus on providing services for homeless families with young female heads of household, particularly women who are pregnant or have recently given birth and/or are survivors of domestic violence. Beginning in January 2006, we extended our services to include the male partners of clients whether part of the residential composition or not. Our target population has minimal formal education and employment skills, with little or no work history. Some have struggled with addiction. Individual recovery is complicated by the high incidence of drug and alcohol abuse in the populations we serve.

Hispanic and African-American young women and teenagers, historically 90-95% of our participants, find their way to Nazareth Housing through their search for a place to live. We recognize housing as an access point, a place from which to begin building a trusting working alliance that addresses the immediate problem and may eventually uncover other areas of vulnerability, such as domestic violence, substance abuse, severe credit issues and indebtedness, school truancy, lack of literacy and under-employment.

The following demographic profile from FY 2008, based on a population of over 1,136 unduplicated individuals, provides a snapshot of the families served by Nazareth Housing.

Less than 1% of our families have income above the 2008 federal poverty level
79% of families are headed by single women generally between 18 and 40 years old.
65% are Hispanic
Nearly 69% of the heads of household did not have a high school diploma
At time of intake, 73% of family heads of households are unemployed.

Data from the New York City Housing and Neighborhood Information System show the Lower East Side to be one of the most densely populated areas in the five boroughs. Many are housed in small, aging and extremely crowded units. A high proportion of families are living doubled up without leases to their apartments and at high risk for eviction by friends or family members.

Our participants are people without financial resources or adequate support systems. They are young families without the means to secure an independent foothold in the adult world. A household may contain multiple generations of single mothers; the fathers of their children are often not willing or able to provide financial support -- others are unknown, incarcerated, or live in different states or countries.

Our experience demonstrates that the need for homelessness prevention services, financial literacy, job readiness and career development,debt reduction, is growing on the Lower East Side despite recent gentrification on its western boundaries. The Lower East Side remains an impoverished region of New York City.