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Graphs by Aspen Hickman

Watauga County Perceptions of

We surveyed over 70 WHS students to find out what they believed about various issues regarding causes, effects, and solutions for homelessness. Read the article below.

Survey and graphs by Brayden Howard

The way that others view homeless people can vary wildly, based on one's own life experiences, socioeconomic status, and even things such as political leaning. Watauga high school happens to be a diverse mix of many different forms of these factors, and as such our school has many differing views and opinions on all sorts of issues, including homelessness. The Powderhorn surveyed 73 Watauga High School students on various issues and questions regarding homelessness, and received a variety of responses.

A majority of respondents disagreed with the statement that homelessness was often or always the fault of the person who is homeless, only 14 stated they agreed with the statement, about 19% of our respondents. This is below the national polling numbers, according to another NAEH poll, 36% of Americans believe homelessness is driven by Personal Decisions.
The respondents were very split on the question of drug use as the primary cause of homelessness, roughly ⅓ agreed overall, while ⅓ disagreed, with the remaining third as neutral or unsure. This was noticeably different from national polling, in a poll by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, 54% of Americans believe drug use is a “primary driving factor” of homelessness.

Respondents were almost perfectly split on the question of if Homeless people need to work harder to improve their circumstances, but a large majority did say that they should receive government aid, including 10 respondents who stated that homeless people need to work harder, but should also be given government aid.

Students were unsure about the question of if homeless people are dangerous to bystanders, as a whopping 31 responded that they were neutral or unsure on the statement, while a total of 32 disagreed with the statement. Conversely, respondents were confidently and Majority opposed to the concept of encampment clearing, by force if necessary. This was only one of two questions in which the strongly agree or disagree option received more responses than the standard agree or disagree.

Statement: Housing should be provided to homeless people by the government.

57% of respondents believed the government should provide homeless people housing, this is within the margin of error of national polling, as 54% of Americans believe the government should fund programs to provide housing to homeless people.

Statement: Housing should be free in the United States.

Nearly perfectly reversed, 57% of respondents opposed ideas to make housing free in the United States, opposed to a mere 28% who supported them.

Population Numbers

A majority of respondents, 57%, stated that they believed greater than 1% of the United States Population was currently homelessness. In reality, only around 770,000 Americans are homeless on any given night, around 0.3-0.4% of the populace. This indicates a widespread belief that homelessness is a common problem afflicting substantially more of the nation than it does in reality. Respondents also overwhelmingly believed that homelessness was on the rise, a perception that is generally correct. With homelessness having increased by about 18% in between 2023 and 2024.

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