Survey Finds One in 400 Americans is Homeless

[sabra]

http://www.news10.net/storyfull3.aspx?storyid=13590

Survey Finds One in 400 Americans is Homeless


Months before hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, volunteer searchers found 6,251 homeless people living in the coastal areas of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. The search was part of an unprecedented count of the nation's homeless population that the federal government asked cities and counties to conduct.

That snapshot tally was 723,968 homeless people nationwide, meaning about one in 400 Americans were without a home, according to a USA Today survey of all 460 localities that reported results to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in June.

HUD will need six months to add up the local reports, and the agency isn't planning to announce the total because counting methods weren't uniform, spokesman Brian Sullivan says. Whatever flaws the count may have, it is the most ambitious attempt ever to measure the scope of homelessness in the nation.

Earlier estimates were based on statistical sampling techniques. A 2000 study by the Urban Institute estimated 444,000 to 842,000 homeless people.

[ixion]

1. and 80% beyond that are just a paycheck or two away

:-(

[sniffa]

2. yeah, but many of them have chosen to be homeLess

[sabra]

3. such a lasting legacy

:puke:

[Megahurtz]

4. What a Frightening Photo!

In more ways than one.

[all.of.me]

6. yup, i know plenty of people who just travel, following the good weather.

they don't want a home. and they're content! imagine that!

[MichiganVote]

5. Yeah but we're not leaving any children behind anymore (sarcasm)

[TomClash]

7. Freeper Response:

"That means we got 399 with homes! That's damn good!"

[Just Me]

8. I believe that figure is much, much higher.

First of all, homeless folks are most often in locations "unseen" to the public eye. Secondly, lots of homeless folks take shelter in a variety of places: shelters, family, strangers, churches,...wherever they can find temporary safety. Third, there is a misperception of the appearance of a homeless person,...they are rarely filthy ragged with teeth missing.

[MountainLaurel]

9. You're right

In my former county (ironically, one of the wealthiest in the nation), the majority of the homeless population: children. And not runaways on the street, but kids in families where at least one parent works full time.

I think the term used in the social services literature is "functionally homeless," for those who aren't necessarily living in their car, but who bounce from one relative's spare bedroom to another.

[jwirr]

10. You are so right. There are four generations living in

our home, one being a family with a child. I also know many young adults who are living 3-8 in a house because they cannot afford to live alone. Isn't that a type of homelessness? We need to have some real questions on the next census about housing. Ones reveal the involuntary living arrangements in households.

[MountainLaurel]

11. I'm not sure how the census counts it

But the figures that the National Coalition for the Homeless and other advocacy groups tabulate do include the functionally homeless. And I fear these numbers are going to explode once the new bankruptcy law goes into effect. I volunteered at a family shelter for several years, and our residents could be divided into two categories: families where a parent had a health crisis (including day laborers who were injured in construction accidents but had no health insurance and were not eligible for workman's comp and many families dealing with severe mental illness) and those who had another sort of catastrophe, such as a house fire or a husband discovered to be raping his daughters (in the latter one, interestingly, the husband was allowed to keep the house since it was in his name (while his wife was home raising the kids) and the wife and her five children had to look elsewhere for living space).

[MADem]

12. True, if you are crashing with Aunt Bertha or staying in grandma's

basement, you may not have a real home, but they do not regard you as homeless.

[JoFerret]

13. What an apallingly high number

a disgrace.