ABSTRACT
In recent years, somewhat more than half the people receiving services from the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida have been women, women with children, men with children, and intact husband-wife homeless families. Homeless men in Orlando, as is true almost everywhere, are predominantly young, single, and non-white, demographic facts that compound their employment difficulties and thus their housing options. Personal safety is always of concern to homeless people regardless of their living arrangements. The public's beliefs about the causes of homelessness are important because they can influence behavioral and policy responses to homeless people. Aside from the persistent concern that homeless people may be dangerous and, of course, the routine linkage in the public mind between homelessness and panhandling, Central Florida residents' perceptions of the homeless are for the most part both demographically accurate and sympathetic.
