Understanding Homelessness
Fourth Street Clinic helps homeless Utahns improve their health and quality of life by providing high-quality, integrated health care. Part of fulfilling our mission to improve health and leave a lasting impact involves educating our community about: health outcomes and disparities among people experiencing homelessness as compared to the general population, seeing the whole person before seeing homelessness, and destigmatizing common assumptions.
The 2026 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count recorded 4,512 Utahns experiencing homelessness on a single night in January, a 1.6% decrease from 4,584 in 2025. Last year, Utah recorded an 18% increase over 2024, the largest single-year jump in recent history. Crowding in shelters or sleeping on street corners and in parks and cars, these individuals experience the loneliness, fear and pain of homelessness. Homelessness is incredibly challenging and traumatic – and leads to serious health complications.
Having a home and being healthy are linked; good health is unobtainable without safe, permanent housing. The National Health Care for the Homeless Council reports that the average life expectancy of a homeless individual is 48 years – 31 years less than the general U.S. population. Per Healthcare for the Homeless, “medical debt is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy filings in the United States, and more than 20% of Americans between 19 and 64 years old struggle to pay their medical bills.”
2026 Homeless Data Report
The Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness’ 2026 Homelessness Data Report provides a look at homelessness across Salt Lake County, bringing together Point-in-Time Count data, housing capacity, population trends and system performance measures from 2023–2026. The report examines both progress and ongoing challenges to better understand who is experiencing homelessness and how the community can strengthen its response.
Homelessness is often discussed as though it tells us something about a person’s character. It doesn’t. It tells us that someone does not have a stable place to live. Everything else – their health, employment, family circumstances, mental health, substance use and history – is individual. And when someone is living without housing, their health does not stop mattering. They still need preventive care, treatment for chronic conditions, medications, dental care, mental health support and a place to turn when they get sick. Meeting people where they are at means recognizing those needs without requiring someone to first become housed, healthy or “deserving” before they can receive care.
Seeing the Whole Person &
Destigmatizing Homelessness
“People choose to be homeless.”
Very few people would choose to spend their nights outside, exposed to extreme temperatures, violence and the constant stress of not knowing where they will sleep. In 2024, 83% of renters earning less than $30,000 were cost-burdened, while 67% were severely cost-burdened, spending more than half their income on housing. For people already living on the edge, one unexpected expense can have serious consequences.
“Homelessness mostly affects single men.”
While men make up the majority of people experiencing homelessness, women, children and families represent a significant part of the population. In 2024, 148,238 children experienced homelessness on a single night, a 33% increase from the previous year – the largest increase among any age group. Families with children experienced a 39% increase in homelessness between 2023 and 2024, according to HUD.
The health consequences for children can be significant: research cited by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness found that half of children experiencing homelessness under age four also experience developmental delays – a rate three to four times higher than their housed peers. Women are also experiencing homelessness at increasing rates; in 2024, 18 out of every 10,000 women experienced homelessness, compared with 28 out of every 10,000 men, and homelessness among women increased 19% from the previous year. These numbers are a reminder that homelessness is not limited to people sleeping alone on the street; it affects parents, children and entire families, often in ways that are less visible but that can have lasting effects on health and well-being.
Read about the stories and backgrounds of some of
our neighbors experiencing homelessness:
Learn more about the systems, challenges, and
solutions shaping health outcomes for
people experiencing homelessness:
“People experiencing homelessness don’t want to work.”
Employment does not necessarily protect someone from homelessness. A study cited by the Urban Institute found that 53% of adults staying in homeless shelters and 40% of people sleeping unsheltered were employed during the same year they experienced homelessness. For people without stable housing, maintaining employment can also be complicated by health needs. Managing a chronic condition, recovering from an injury or finding reliable transportation to medical appointments can be difficult when you do not have a safe place to sleep or consistent access to care. The assumption that someone is simply unwilling to work overlooks the many practical barriers that can make maintaining employment difficult.
“Homelessness is primarily caused by drug addiction.”
Substance use is one factor that can be present in homelessness, but it does not define the population. Homelessness can also expose people to trauma, chronic stress, sleep deprivation and unsafe environments, all of which can affect physical and mental health. Research describes substance use as either a potential cause, consequence or co-occurring problem that often becomes a coping mechanism for trauma experienced while unhoused.
“Most people experiencing homelessness are mentally ill.”
Mental illness is more common among people experiencing homelessness than in the general population, but it is not synonymous with homelessness. SAMHSA estimates that 23.4% of U.S. adults experienced any mental illness in 2024, while 5.6% experienced serious mental illness. People experiencing homelessness may also experience trauma, anxiety, depression and chronic stress as a result of their circumstances. At the same time, many people without housing do not have a serious mental illness. Assuming that everyone experiencing homelessness is mentally ill overlooks the whole person.
“People experiencing homelessness are dangerous.”
People experiencing homelessness are far more likely to experience violence than to be violent. A lack of housing can leave people vulnerable to assault, theft and exploitation, particularly when they are sleeping in public or isolated places. Unsheltered homelessness also increases exposure to extreme weather and other environmental hazards. What is sometimes perceived as threatening behavior may instead be a person experiencing a health crisis, communicating distress or trying to navigate an unstable and ever-changing environment.
“People experiencing homelessness could manage their health if they just made it a priority.”
Taking care of your health requires access to resources that people experiencing homelessness may not have. Someone living with a disability, chronic illness or serious injury may already face challenges that affect every part of daily life, and managing those conditions without a stable place to live can be even more difficult. Consider something as simple as managing diabetes: a person needs consistent access to nutritious food, clean water, medication, medical supplies and a safe place to store them. Treating an infection requires somewhere to rest and complete a course of medication, while recovering from surgery or an injury requires a safe place to heal. Even preventive care becomes harder when someone is focused on meeting their most immediate needs like finding food and a place to sleep. These are not failures of personal responsibility; they are circumstances that can make maintaining good health extraordinarily difficult.