Like their urban counterparts, the rural homeless population is subjected to challenges unique to their environment; however, due to the geographic, cultural, and philosophical differences that have always distinguished city life from country living, those who find themselves homeless in rural communities have access to equally unique tools for recovery. Although cities offer more institutional support for the homeless (shelters, food banks, free clinics, etc.), the rural homeless are often able to benefit from the hospitable, generous spirit of their local community. While many rural families take shelter in cars or outbuildings not intended for occupancy or set up housekeeping in abandoned houses, more are able to stay with friends or relatives until they get back on their feet. Unlike the urban homeless-who must wade through forms, wait in lines, see their failures catalogued and filed, and surrender their pride and self-esteem just to secure a bed for the night-the rural poor often have recourse to private institutions that give without questions or expectations. Most rural churches and service-oriented groups eagerly extend food, clothing, cash gifts, transportation, and job leads to those less fortunate than themselves, selflessness being central to most humanitarian philosophies.

Demographically, single males comprise the majority of the general homeless population; in rural areas, families make up a notable portion of the whole; of these, over half are headed by a working mother. While stressors such as job loss, limited income, rising housing costs, and wounded pride might account for the high incidence of domestic violence within rural homeless families; drug and alcohol abuse-an emotional escape mechanism common among the urban homeless-occurs less frequently. The farming population having long been predominantly white, it comes as no surprise that Caucasians comprise the majority of the rural homeless. Native Americans and Hispanic colonia dwellers, whose heritage is also tied to the land, fall in with the remaining 22% of the rural homeless total. Regardless of race or circumstance, for most rural homeless families, homelessness is a temporary, one-time occurrence that they are able to overcome more quickly than the urban homeless.