Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Chamaine Ready
“Out of sight, out of mind”. Apply this framework to a community in crisis. One wouldn’t typically apply this to how a community responds to say, a natural disaster. However, in the current climate of homelessness, the mindset “not in my backyard” is common, which essentially means “out of sight, out of mind”. It’s true that unhoused living is messy, unstable, unpredictable, impacts economic growth and interferes with the way people enjoy life. Unhoused living can also be unhealthy and dangerous. Certainly, there is no question that unhoused living is complicated.
In the debate on how a community responds to the unhoused crisis, it’s important to work through all factors of the issue with action driven dialogue. There is one significant aspect of the unhoused crisis that needs ongoing discussion, which is that people with disabilities are disproportionately likely to experience homelessness. Communities that hope to address the issues of the unhoused crisis can respond thoughtfully to the unique challenges that unhoused individuals with disabilities experience.
The reality of people with disabilities living unhoused is staggering:
According to Henry (2022), roughly half of homeless individuals in the United States live with a disability. This rate is 2.5 times higher than the general population, as reported by Jack Preisser in Disability & Homelessness in America, Accessibility Digest, March 10, 2025.
TAC (Technical Assistance Collaborative Inc) along with the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities, produced a report (Priced Out- The Housing Crisis for People With Disabilities), which indicated that 4.1 million people with disabilities who receive SSI cannot afford housing in any housing market in the US without financial support (Gina Schaak, Lisa Sloane, Francine Arienti, Andrew Zovistaski, December 2017).
Utilizing reports from Colorado’s Balance of State Continuum of Care, it has been noted that in Colorado, 75% of the total homeless population reports at least one disabling condition (Balance Of State, 2021).
In addition, a United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) report in 2024 stated that “The fastest growing group of people experiencing homelessness in the United States are those aged 50 or older” (Older Adults and Homelessness: How Continuums of Care and Area Agencies on Aging Can Collaborate, August 13, 2024). The older adult population of unhoused individuals are significantly more vulnerable to age-related disabling factors such as illness, cognitive impairment, loss of spouse (equal to loss of income) and mobility issues.
When addressing research, responses of “But that’s not my community” are common. Per the Grand Valley Housing Needs Assessment, the poverty rate for people with disabilities ages 18-64, was at 34% (Root Policy Research, City of Grand Junction, June 2021). Information from the By Name List Snapshot from the Homeless Management Information system (HMIS), 2019-2022, showed that out of 4,760 unique individuals who were listed as unhoused, 51% of those were people living with a disability (Root Policy Research, Grand Valley Needs Assessment Final Report, City of Grand Junction, June 2021).
As a life-long local advocate for people with disabilities and employee of Center For Independence here in Grand Junction CO, I meet unhoused individuals with disabilities on a routine basis. From January 2025 to May of 2025, CFI reported 68 individuals within the Homeless programing of CFI’s services.
To further understand this issue, let’s consider a man I will call Jeff, for confidentiality purposes. He’s an older man, who owned a successful business for over 25 years. Life circumstances, to include a chronic disabling illness, led to the loss of his home, which he owned. When I met Jeff a year and ½ ago, he was unhoused. He applied for support, completed the process and at one point tried living with others to escape the realities of living in his truck. At last contact, Jeff was still unhoused, waiting to access housing services, which often takes a year or longer.
In closing, the challenges that people with disabilities experience when living unhoused are complex and cannot be ignored. Communities can act in a variety of ways to improve outcomes for people with disabilities living in poverty and faced with homelessness. Raising awareness is an important first step. Anyone can advocate for inclusive policies or support specialized programs that assist people with disabilities, such as shelters or non- profit programs. Promoting employment opportunities for people with disabilities allows the ability to increase financial capacity for self-sufficiency. The key is to shift the framework of thought that pushes the unhoused crisis “out of sight out of mind” and instead opens doors of dialogue for productive solutions.