Illicit Drug and Alcohol Use Among Homeless Black Adults in Shelters

The epidemiology of alcohol, drug, and mental disorders among homeless persons.

“…These problems of definition and classification notwithstanding, it may be reasonable to estimate that from 25% to 50% of homeless people use illicit drugs and that rates of use exceed those reported for the general population (Fischer, 1989; see Table 2). Milburn and Booth (1988) found that residents of a Washington, DC, shelter reported rates of lifetime use of illicit drugs that were higher in virtually every category than those in the general population. However, the differences were most pronounced in the older (35 + years) rather than in the younger (18–34 years) group.…”

Editors’ Introduction: Homelessness and substance abuse in the 1990s

“…Even single-site studies (e.g., Koegel, Burnam & Farr, 1988) have tended not to mention crack as a major problem among the homeless. The exceptions in the literature are Susser, Struening and Conover's work in the New York shelters (Susser, Struening & Conover, 1989;Struening, 1988), which found crack cocaine to be the predominant drug of abuse among homeless shelter residents; Milburn and Booth's (1992) comparative study between homeless and non-homeless black adults; Spinner and Leaf's (1992) New Haven sample of shelter residents; the Cuomo Commission shelter survey in New York (Cuomo, 1992, cited in Jenks, 1994; and the high prevalence of crack use among homeless substanceabusing populations recruited for many of the NIAAA homeless demonstration projects, particularly in the largest urban centers (see Conrad, Hultman & Lyons, 1993;Stahler, forthcoming).…”