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Chapter 3: Homeless Population and Current Service Capacity <br />MULTISERVICE CENTERS BY LOCATION AND SUBPOPULATION SERVED <br />Subpopulation Served North County Rest of County Total <br />All homeless 4 0 4 <br />Families 1 0 1 <br />Women only 1 0 1 <br />Youth only 1 0 1 <br />Mentally disabled & dual diag. 2 1 (Mid-Counry) 3 <br />Total 9 1 10 <br />Source: HomeBase/HCD <br />Job Training/Emplovment <br />As described above, the single greatest contributor to homelessness is poverty. In order <br />to exit homelessness and stabilize their lives, homeless people must have access to <br />income. Although many homeless people suffer from chronic disabilities, or are <br />unable to work and require some form of income support, most homeless people are <br />interested in working and indicate that they would like to work. Locally, and <br />nationally, about 20% of homeless people are working but are still unable to obtain <br />housing. (See Chapter 7 for more detail. ) <br />Finding a job today with continued high unemployment and the job market changing is <br />not easy for low-income people who have housing. For homeless people it is even <br />harder. Homeless people encounter multiple barriers to getting and retaining <br />employment that most job seekers do not share, including the need for both interim and <br />permanent housing, food, child care, transportation, access to a telephone and message <br />services, clothing appropriate for employment, health care, substance abuse and mental <br />health treatment, job training and financial planning and assistance. HomeBase <br />highlights child care as the greatest barrier to employment for homeless families, <br />particularly for single women with children. At the Jobs for the Homeless Consortium <br />in Berkeley, 57 percent of participants cited the lack of transportation as the greatest <br />obstacle to finding work. <br />Alameda County-Wide Homeless Continuum of Care Plan: April 1997 <br />25 <br />