Homelessness and childhood abuse: an excerpt from Rough Sleepers

"Dr. Bonnar had made rough estimates about the homeless patients he had known.  Ninety percent, he told me [Tracy Kidder], had been afflicted by substance abuse or mental illness or both.  And at least 75 percent had suffered the physical and psychological effects of severe childhood trauma.

Over the years, Jim [O'Connell] had learned the worst parts of many patients' biographies, and he'd been astonished at how many had suffered abuse as children.  He thought Dr. Bonnar's estimate of 75 percent was credible, maybe even low."

Rough Sleepers, written by Tracy Kidder, about Dr Jim O'Connell's career in bringing medicine to the streets of Boston, pages 71-72.

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