PASADENA — Darrel Howard--a graduate of Blair High School in Pasadena and a former student at Pasadena City College--is homeless. He knows the stereotype.

"Old men, bums, alcoholics," said Howard, 32, who stays at Union Station shelter in the city. "Every time I look at TV, they show a downtown mission and guys with a bottle, lying around on a piece of cardboard."

According to an unprecedented study for the city, the stereotype is wrong--Pasadena's homeless have more in common with other residents than most people believe. Most homeless people, for instance, have, like Howard, at least a high school education, the study shows. And one in three holds a full- or part-time job.

On Monday, the Pasadena Housing and Homeless Network released a draft report on the demographics and lifestyles of the city's homeless--part of a joint project by the homeless network and the city that began in September, 1992, with a count and survey of the homeless population.

Data from interviews with 507 homeless people is included in the draft report, which the City Council will use to create a comprehensive plan on the long-term needs of the homeless.

The draft report puts a face on the people who sleep on Pasadena's streets and provides a picture of who they are. They include a former accountant, social worker and interior decorator; an auto mechanic, garment worker and a street musician.

Men make up 72.5% of the homeless population, women 27.5%. Forty-eight percent of the school-age homeless children are enrolled in schools. The survey noted 205 homeless children, but only 65 were surveyed.

Almost half were Pasadena residents before they became homeless. A whopping 79% of the men and 67% of the women have a high school education, or higher--compared with 76% of Pasadena's general population.

Lewis Davis, 37, is homeless, but holds a part-time job as a security guard. Davis, who is living at Union Station shelter, is anxiously waiting to begin a training program in the spring for a job in optical dispensing. Saving money to rent an apartment, he shook his head at the notion that he wants to be on the streets.

"People feel we're (homeless) because we want to be," said Davis, who graduated from high school in Kaysville, Utah, and spent a year at Pasadena City College.