278 Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health

Since the early 1980s, women have been one of the most rapidly growing segments of the homeless population in the United States.1 The 1999 National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients found that 42 % of those surveyed were women and more than 80 % of homeless fam-ilies were headed by women.2 At any given time, one-fifth of homeless women are pregnant—a rate twice that of all U.S. women of reproductive age and substantially higher than that of low-income women who are not homeless.3 Despite the growing number of homeless women of re-productive age, little is known about their reproductive health. Homeless women are difficult to study: Since they do not have telephones or home addresses, they are not cap-tured in most national surveys, such as the National Survey of Family Growth.4 Limited data suggest that homeless yout