by Joshua Foote, Social Media Manager at The City Mission

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What is the average age of a homeless person in the United States?  As the Social Media Manager at The City Mission, I’m constantly looking at the online discussion that is happening regarding homelessness.  From YouTube videos to organizational websites there’s a number you see over and over again.  9 years old.

It’s been tweeted and retweeted and quoted in blog posts by almost anyone who has anything to say about homelessness and why not?  It’s a shocking statistic.  That’s why I posted the question on facebook and twitter. Homelessness is hard to ignore when you change the face of it from a strung-out middle age man to a 3^rd grader just learning to write cursive.  Doesn’t it motivate you to act, to make a difference before it’s too late?  It should.  I have three little boys and they are precious.  Not just precious to me because I’m their dad, precious because they are unique and full of potential.  I would do anything for them.  Will that change when they are older?  If they grow up to be strung-out middle age men living on the street will I care any less for them?  I ask because the startling 9 year average statistic is almost certainly wrong.

It’s hard to say where exactly the rumor started, but the fact is no one really knows the average age of a homeless person.  It’s hard enough to agree on exactly how to make the classification of homeless and often the definition changes for children.  With so many different organizations and perspectives trying to track a group in a constant state of flux accurate information is hard to find.  The face of homelessness is hard to capture.

Discovering the truth has made me think a lot and I’ve chosen a new question.  Does it really matter what the average age of a homeless person is?  Of course if you’re deciding how to help someone, then their age changes how you do so.  But, that’s not what I’m doing at the moment.  I’m just picturing a face and deciding whether or not I’m motivated to take action.  Yes.  Children are precious, but more so than the shoeless, dirty, drunken vagrant?  Is the panhandler less than the playground pirate?  Jesus didn’t seem to think so.  Neither should we. 

As time goes by we will have more information about people who are homeless.  We will say how many million there are, how long they’ve been in crisis and how old they really are.  That will be a good thing.  But it is our understanding of the value of a single person, “the least of these,” whatever their age that motivates us to rise up and take the action that is needed.