Report places New Orleans’ homeless rate at second in the nation, By Katy Reckdahl, February 5, 2012, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “With a homeless population estimated at almost 6,700, the New Orleans metro area has the second-highest rate of homelessness in the nation. So says a new report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The report, which focused on the years 2009 to 2011, found the national rate of homelessness was 21 per 10,000 residents in 2011. New Orleans’ rate was nearly three times the national average, at 56 per 10,000, barely lower than Tampa, Fla., which ranked highest with 57…”

Homeless families, cloaked in normality, By Alan Feuer, February 3, 2012, New York Times: “On the sixth day she was homeless, Tonya Lewis overslept. She woke in the dark, in Room 6E at the 93rd Avenue Family Residence, a privately run shelter in Jamaica, Queens. It was 4:45 a.m. She was already running late. Rousting her children - Unique, 15, and Jacaery, 2 - from their beds, Ms. Lewis got them dressed and started shoving DVDs and diapers into two bulging tote bags. When the boys were ready - sleepy, sullen, hoodied, backpacked, in hats and winter jackets - she pushed them out the door (’Come on, we gotta go!’) to begin their daily routine…”

State’s student homeless population doubles, By Jessica Anderson, January 22, 2012, Baltimore Sun: “For a few hours after school, Ryan Johnson is just like most 16-year-olds. He lounges on the couch with his favorite Xbox game or checks his Facebook page. But then reality sets in. He decamps from his cousins’ house for the Howard County cold-weather shelter. Dinner is a meal with his father and 20 other homeless people. He goes to bed early, on a green plastic mat next to strangers, who also have no other place to go in one of the state’s wealthiest counties. ‘It has been really hard,’ said Ryan, a junior at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia. ‘I look at it like a detention I have to do every day, even though I didn’t do anything wrong.’ Ryan’s experience is becoming increasingly common. The number of homeless students in Maryland has more than doubled in the past five years, rising from 6,721 to 14,117 last school year, according to the Maryland State Department of Education…”

• Homelessness down but seen rising anew: report, By Ian Simpson, January 18, 2012, Orlando Sentinel: “U.S. homelessness slipped 1 percent from 2009 to 2011, but the sluggish economy left more poor people struggling to pay for housing and just a step away from shelters, an advocacy group said in a new study on Wednesday. The drop to 636,017 homeless people last year could prove short-lived, since it was likely due to $1.5 billion in federal aid that will run out this year, the National Alliance to End Homelessness said in its report…”
• Stimulus money kept Americans off the street, study finds, By Matt Smith, January 18, 2012, CNN.com: “Federal aid helped many cash-strapped Americans keep a roof over their heads during the prolonged economic slump, but the number of people living a step away from the streets has grown sharply, researchers reported Wednesday. The estimated U.S. homeless population dipped about 1% between 2009 and 2011 despite the lingering effects of the 2007-2009 recession, the Washington-based Homelessness Research Institute concluded. About $1.5 billion from the 2009 economic stimulus measure went toward rental assistance and programs steering recently evicted people toward new housing, ‘and it seems likely that that has worked,’ said Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness…”

• Michigan’s homeless students: Foreclosure crisis takes toll on 31,000 kids, By Jeff Seidel, December 18, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Like a silent epidemic, the number of homeless children in Michigan schools is growing. In the 2010-11 school year, more than 31,000 homeless students attended school — 8,500 more than in the previous school year, a 37% spike attributed to the weak economy, loss of jobs and the foreclosure crisis. Overall, the number of homeless students in Michigan has jumped more than 300% in the last four years. Most experts say those numbers are low because many parents are embarrassed to admit they are homeless. And many school districts lack the resources to identify these kids, as required by federal law. Advocates say there’s also a disincentive to find homeless children. Once a district finds them, it has to pay to transport them to school and provide other services — a tough job for many cash-strapped districts. School officials who deal with these children say the numbers are likely to grow next year because of the thousands of families who have lost jobless benefits and other cash assistance…”
• For Michigan’s homeless students, a storage room of backpacks shows community support, By Jeff Seidel, December 19, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “The small cluttered motel room is filled with all their worldly possessions — bags of clothes from a free clothes locker, a fistful of utensils standing up in a Mason jar, a deep fryer, a toaster oven, a Crock-Pot, a box of food donated from a nearby church, and a backpack that links thousands of homeless children across Michigan. The backpack was given to 11-year-old Amber Phillips by the Macomb Intermediate School District because she is a homeless student. She has been living in this motel for two months..”
• Covenant House is a haven for Michigan’s homeless students, By Jeff Seidel, December 20, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Even before the downturn in the economy, there were thousands of homeless children across the state — kids who ran away from home because of family squabbles or because of abuse or because of myriad other reasons. Some children now might have a new reason to run away. ‘Now, we are seeing kids who leave home because they feel their parents can’t afford them anymore and they feel like, ‘I have to go on my own and spare them paying for me,” said Pamela Kies-Lowe, the state coordinator for Homeless Education at the Michigan Department of Education. ‘They are trying to be magnanimous to their families. They strike out on their own and figure out they can’t make it.’ She said even those who leave for reasons of abuse might have an underlying tie to the economy…”
• Love from new families turns lives around for Michigan’s homeless students, By Jeff Seidel, December 21, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Traverse City and Adrian are running two of the most unusual programs in the state to help homeless children — families taking in a homeless child for a year so he or she can finish high school. It’s an idea that could be replicated around the state to help agencies already besieged by too many people who need help and not enough money to go around. In both cities, homeless children are placed in mentor homes for the entire school year. Last year, 15 students were in the Traverse City program; all seven seniors graduated. In Adrian, 13 children were in the program last year and all of them also graduated from high school, including two valedictorians. Beth McCullough, who runs the Adrian program, said 87% of the homeless students in the program have gone on to higher education…”

• Report: Child homelessness up 33% in 3 years, By Marisol Bello, December 12, 2011, USA Today: “One in 45 children in the USA - 1.6 million children - were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness. The numbers represent a 33% increase from 2007, when there were 1.2 million homeless children, according to a report the center is releasing Tuesday.  ’This is an absurdly high number,’ says Ellen Bassuk, president of the center. ‘What we have new in 2010 is the effects of a man-made disaster caused by the economic recession. … We are seeing extreme budget cuts, foreclosures and a lack of affordable housing.’ The report paints a bleaker picture than one by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which nonetheless reported a 28% increase in homeless families, from 131,000 in 2007 to 168,000 in 2010…”
• Child homelessness continues to rise, By Lindsay Fiori, December 14, 2011, Racine Journal Times: “Child homelessness has gone up across the nation including in Wisconsin and Racine since the Great Recession began in 2007, according to figures released Tuesday. Nationwide child homelessness went up 38 percent from the 2006-07 school year to the 2009-10 school year, the most recent year for which national data is available. During that same time, the number of homeless children in Wisconsin grew 48 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness. Locally, the number of homeless students attending Racine Unified grew 3 percent between 2006-07 and 2009-10. But 2006-07 had an usually large number of homeless students so a more accurate increase is found by looking at 2005-06 to 2009-10, when the number of homeless students increased by 26 percent, according to district data…”
• Homelessness hits families as shelters feel squeezed, By Annysa Johnson, December 12, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Robyn Greif lay beneath the covers in an Oak Creek motel, the sounds of her small children around her, thinking for the first time in days: ‘We don’t have to rush somewhere. We can feed our kids. We can shower today.’ The family of seven had driven from South Carolina in search of work for Greif’s husband, Sean, but had run out of money. They had spent three nights sleeping in their minivan because the area shelters were full. The Salvation Army paid to house them at the motel, at least through last weekend, and their prospects for permanent housing look good. But the Greifs represent a troubling trend in this time of economic turmoil: the growing number of homeless families - at a time when shelters are filled beyond capacity and state and federal dollars earmarked to run them are being cut…”
• Report: Confusion over ‘homelessness’ can mean less food aid to needy, By Pamela M. Prah, December 13, 2011, Stateline.org: “Many low-income Americans who have lost their homes to foreclosure and are living with friends could be eligible for more food stamp assistance and not even know it, says an advocacy group that is urging states to ask better questions to ensure people get the proper level of assistance. The federal food stamp program allows, but doesn’t require, states to offer a “homeless shelter deduction” that essentially increases the level of benefits for anyone without a permanent residence. Currently 26 states offer the deduction ‘and in those states, very few households claim the deduction,’ says a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C…”

New attention paid to homeless youth and families, By Meribah Knight, November 3, 2011, New York Times: “More than 10,000 homeless students are enrolled in Chicago’s classrooms this fall, a 16 percent increase over last year and a record high, according to Chicago Public Schools data for September. The school district’s numbers reflect a trend seen by service providers around the city: Chicago’s homeless population is becoming younger. More families are living on the street, and the number of homeless youths on their own has grown exponentially. With a lack of affordable housing, a rising number of foreclosures and a state unemployment rate higher than the national average, the increase in homeless youths and families is putting stress on a social support system that is facing sharp cuts in budgets and programs…”

Schools hit by expense of transporting homeless, By Kathy McCabe, October 6, 2011, Boston Globe: “The white van with a yellow school bus sign on top stopped at the front door of a hotel on Route 1. A young girl with a heavy backpack stepped off, waving to her mother, who came to meet the bus. Two other children exited the bus and pushed the glass door to enter the lobby. Hotels are a regular stop on public school bus routes north of Boston, where hundreds of homeless families are temporarily living because the state’s 2,000 family shelter units are full. As of Monday, there were 1,437 families living in motels and hotels across Massachusetts, according to the state Department of Housing and Community Development. More than 300 families are living at hotels in Burlington, Chelmsford, Danvers, Haverhill, Malden, Saugus, Tewksbury, and Woburn, according to state data. But since August, when a new program started to place homeless families in permanent housing, the number of families living in hotels has dropped by about 20 percent, or by 341 families, including 30 that moved from Danvers hotels…”

• In western Wisconsin, homelessness moves out to the suburbs, By Andy Rathbun, October 1, 2011, Pioneer Press: “The Conde family never expected to be homeless. The family moved from western Wisconsin to Oregon in June 2009 with hopes that Robert Conde could find more jobs painting and drywalling. The work wasn’t there, and to add to the family’s hardships, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It wasn’t long before they packed their belongings and made a cold January drive back to Wisconsin. ‘Within a month’s time, it was like everything was crashing down on us,’ said Shana Conde, Robert’s wife. ‘We got back with nothing. We had no money, and our vehicles were falling apart.’ The couple and their three young children entered Grace Place, an emergency shelter in Somerset, Wis., where they stayed for five months before spending nearly a year in transitional housing. In western Wisconsin’s Pierce, Polk and St. Croix counties, the number of people staying in emergency shelters has risen 56 percent in four years, according to the Wisconsin Division of Housing, which began formally collecting the data in 2007…”
• Initiative to end chronic homelessness in Utah successful, By Marjorie Cortez, September 29, 2011, Deseret News: “The success of a 10-year initiative to end chronic homelessness could mean the eventual closure of the emergency overflow shelter in Midvale. Last winter, there were excess beds available each night in The Road Home’s downtown emergency shelter, which officials attribute to the success of rapid rehousing programs that place homeless families and individuals into permanent supportive housing. Once they settle into housing, they can begin work on the issues that have contributed to their homelessness. There have been as many as 100 open beds on some nights. Chronic homelessness in Utah has fallen 69 percent since 2006. Since 2010, the number of people considered ‘chronic homeless’ - people who have experienced homelessness once within the past year or have had three episodes of homelessness in four years - has dropped 26 percent, according to the 2011 Comprehensive Report on Homelessness released Wednesday…”

Five shelters for homeless to open in rural parts of state, By Madeline Baran, August 9, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Five new homeless shelters will open in rural Minnesota this year as part of a broader effort to shift some state and federal money away from programs in the Twin Cities. The state’s Department of Human Services awarded grants to open shelters in Cass Lake, Pine County, Mankato, Faribault and Marshall, agency officials said Wednesday. At the same time, the agency cut grants to several Twin Cities-based programs, including a drop-in center for homeless adults in St. Paul and a free voicemail service for low-income adults. Advocates for the homeless said shelters are urgently needed in rural areas, but they said the government should spend more to avoid cuts to urban programs…”

• The hidden homeless: Sheltered in motels, they wait, hope, By Edward Colimore, July 25, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Sometimes the problems are so overwhelming that Robert Cordero steps away from his children for a few minutes to pull himself together. While two sons and three daughters play in a cluttered Cherry Hill motel room, he turns up the radio, closes the bathroom door, and cries. ‘I can’t let them see me that way. . . . Who will they look up to?’ said the 40-year-old single father. ‘I have to go back and try to raise five kids.’ Cordero’s family has lived at the Hillside Inn for more than five months, along with a couple dozen other homeless people surviving on public assistance. He and his children - ages 8 to 16 - moved there after Cordero lost his home-remodeling job and they were evicted from a Woodlynne apartment…”
• No place for these students to call home, By Eric G Stark, July 24, 2011, Lancaster Newspapers: “Two boys sleep in a car and use an electric heater to keep warm, running an extension cord into their family’s crowded apartment. A girl showers at her high school rather than endure the long, cold walk to shower at a campground in winter. A family that can’t afford toilet paper resorts to using washcloths, and a boy shares his cousins’ underwear.These are real examples of how some families with children are living in Lancaster County. Just like city schools, where social workers have helped more than 1,000 homeless children this past school year, suburban schools dealt with hundreds more who did not have a permanent place to call home…”

• Homelessness in L.A. County falls 3%, survey finds, By Rong-Gong Lin II and Alexandra Zavis, June 15, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Homelessness on any given day in Los Angeles County has decreased about 3% in the last two years despite the lingering effects of the recession, according to a new survey released Tuesday. But the number of homeless veterans, including younger men and women, grew. The study, conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in January, put the homeless figure at 51,430 in L.A. County, including 23,359 in the city of Los Angeles, which saw a 9% decrease…”
• City’s family shelters are filling up faster, sooner this season, By Jennifer Lin, June 15, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “For four days, Yasmeen Goodmond, 23, went to the city’s homeless-services office, asking for help. And for four days, she was told there were no beds for her family. With nowhere to go, Goodmond and her two children went to the emergency room at Hahnemann University Hospital. They slept in chairs in the waiting room and slipped out in the morning. But their welcome was wearing out. On Monday night, Goodmond asked her cousin to watch her 5-year-old daughter for a few days, while turning to her grandmother for help with her 2-year-old son. For herself, she stayed on the streets, walking all over Center City, never sleeping…”
• US homeless population up slightly, as ranks grow outside cities, By Tony Pugh, June 14, 2011, Kansas City Star: “Despite high unemployment and a stalled economy, the nation’s homeless population grew only slightly in 2010 as stimulus-funded initiatives helped to take or keep nearly 700,000 people off the streets, according to a federal report released Tuesday. While once a predominantly urban problem largely of individuals without families, homelessness, like poverty, has increasingly migrated to suburban and rural areas where more non-Hispanic white families are being affected. In fact, the number of homeless people in households with at least one adult and one child has increased 20 percent since 2007, and families make up a larger share of those in emergency housing than ever before…”
• HUD reports 57 percent increase in rural, suburban Americans using shelters in recent years, Associated Press, June 14, 2011, Washington Post: “As the recession gripped America, thousands more people in rural and suburban areas turned to homeless shelters for help. The number of people using shelters or transitional housing in suburban and rural areas increased 57 percent from 2007 to 2010, with more than 500,000 people from smaller communities seeking help in 2010, according to a report by the Housing and Urban Development Department. During the same time there was a decrease in the use of shelters in urban areas…”

Homelessness on the rise as recession and cuts bite, By Patrick Butler, June 10, 2011, The Guardian: “Homelessness is rising dramatically for the first time in years in the UK as the effects of the recession are felt, with recent increases in some areas of more than 50% in the numbers of people declaring themselves in need of housing, government figures find. The government data show that 26,400 people approached a local council for housing help in the first three months of 2011, a rise of 23% compared with the same period last year. Less than half of these applications were successful, triggering warnings of growing numbers of ‘hidden’ homeless - people forced to squat or sleep on friends’ sofas after not qualifying for official help…”

S.F.: New homeless on street as others find housing, By Kevin Fagan, May 19, 2011, San Francisco Chronicle: “Forced into the streets by the economic downturn, hundreds of newly homeless people have been showing up in San Francisco - in cars and camper vans. Crushed by the same pressures, the number of families without homes has also gone up, according to San Francisco’s latest biennial homeless count, to be released today. The increases come even as the city has managed to reduce the number of hard-core people living for years on the streets, a reduction that has kept the overall homeless population in check. ‘It could have been a lot worse if we hadn’t created so much supportive housing’ and secured federal funding for homeless families, said San Francisco’s homeless policy director, Dariush Kayhan…”

Homeless, but finding sanctuary at school, By Micael Winerip, May 1, 2011, New York Times: “The bus ride from the homeless shelter to Fern Creek Elementary School was, as usual, raucous. A hundred times, Doretha Brown, the bus driver, had to yell for everyone to sit down. ‘This noise is what holds us up every morning and evening!’ Ms. Brown shouted, although the Collins girls - Brianna, 8; Tamara, 7; and Sydney, 6 - could barely hear her above the din. A first grader and a second grader got into a fight on the 15-minute ride, and someone else threw up. Brianna, Tamara and Sydney paid no mind. As their father, James Collins, says, ‘To get by at a shelter, you have to focus yourself.’ This is the sisters’ second stay at a shelter, so they are becoming accustomed to being homeless. Roxanne Schreffler, a kindergarten teacher, was struck by Sydney’s arrival at Fern Creek in February. ‘She walked into kindergarten in the middle of the day and sat right down,’ Ms. Schreffler said. ‘She’d immediately adapted to her new situation. There was no time integrating her into the class; she was ready to go…’”

Student homelessness tests families, schools, By Lisa Pemberton, April 3, 2011, Tacoma News Tribune: “Last fall, Desiree Lee of Lacey held a huge yard sale, packed family photos and other keepsakes into a storage unit and checked into an emergency shelter with her husband, David, and four children, ages 11, 8, 5 and 1. The couple couldn’t find work, and her parents had been helping them with bills. But then her mother died last summer, and Lee’s dad could no longer afford to help pay their rent. They walked away from a home that they had lived in for four years. For six weeks, the family lived in limbo - sleeping quarters were first-come, first-served; weekly showers were a luxury; and the laundromat wasn’t just a place to wash clothes, it was a warm, dry, safe place to hang out until the shelter opened. Lee, 28, said she slipped into survival mode. Things that would normally be important no longer showed up on her radar. For example, she missed an appointment with school officials about an education plan for one of her children who has a learning disability. And homework? ‘I couldn’t help them with their homework - I didn’t have time,’ Lee said. ‘I was more concerned about getting to the shelter in time and getting dinner…’”

• More families became homeless in recession, By Henri E. Cauvin, January 13, 2011, Washington Post: “During the throes of the recession, the number of homeless people in the United States increased, and the number of homeless families increased at an even greater rate, according to a report released Wednesday. The findings by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, although not surprising, confirm the harsh toll that the recession - which began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009 - took on families. Historically, people struggling with mental illness, substance abuse or other chronic problems have been the focus of government homelessness efforts, and until recently the number of such homeless people had been declining. But the recession, which has led to rising unemployment and declining social services, has slowed progress among the chronically homeless and increased numbers of the newly homeless, among them many families, according to the alliance’s report…”
• Foreclosures, homelessness surge in Alabama, By Jeremy Gray, January 13, 2011, Birmingham News: “The number of foreclosed homes across Alabama doubled between 2008 and 2009, even as the state’s total homeless population grew 13 percent, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The alliance used data from federal agencies to monitor the change in the homeless population, with 30 other states and Washington, D.C., reporting increases. There were an estimated 6,080 homeless people in Alabama as of 2009, according to the report. The nation’s total homeless population grew 3 percent in that time to a total of 656,129. Also, between 2008 and 2009, the number of homeless families in Alabama grew 7 percent, while the number of unsheltered homeless — those who live on the street or in cars or abandoned homes — grew 40 percent…”
• Homelessness on the rise, By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje, January 13, 2011, San Antonio Express-News: “The homeless population across the country increased by about 20,000 people, or 3 percent, at the height of the recession between 2008 and 2009, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. A new report from the alliance shows the increases were across the board - families, individuals, the unsheltered and the chronically homeless. In San Antonio, the most recent survey found 3,580 people lived in shelters or on the streets in 2010, compared with 3,303 in 2009…”

• Shelters try ‘housing first’ protocol to help homeless people, By Bill Laitner, December 29, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “An innovative way to help homeless people, called housing first, has dramatically shortened their stays in the South Oakland Shelter system based in Royal Oak and could make shelter programs statewide more effective, experts said. By making permanent housing the first priority at the South Oakland Shelter and addressing other needs — such as job training — later, average stays dropped from four months to 28 days since summer, Executive Director Ryan Hertz said. The organization houses an average of 30 men, women and children at a time, rotating them through 67 churches and synagogues, where volunteers set up cots and serve meals. ‘We’re turning over our beds much faster, so we can help more people,’ Hertz said. But the housing-first approach has taken more than a decade to gain wide acceptance across Michigan because it requires homeless people, shelters’ clients, to have incomes, and there must be safe housing available that they can afford, Wayne State University psychologist and homelessness expert Paul Toro said…”
• New face of homelessness is a family, Dallas-area agencies say, By Kim Horner, January 7, 2011, Dallas Morning News: “First, they stayed with family. Then, they rented a trailer. Finally, they went to a shelter. Katrina Stephens, Alan Charles Walker and their three young children became homeless after Walker’s construction work dried up. Now, the family lives in a modest East Dallas apartment as part of Family Gateway’s transitional housing program. Stephens plans to finish school to become a medical assistant this spring. ‘We’re back on track,’ she said. The economy has taken a similar toll on thousands of families nationwide - and the numbers are rising. About 80,000 families - typically a single woman with young children - are homeless on any given night, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Families are the fastest-growing homeless population, according to Family Gateway and other local agencies…”

Los Angeles confronts homelessness reputation, By Adam Nagourney, December 12, 2010, New York Times: “It was just past dusk in the upscale enclave of Brentwood as a homeless man, wrapped in a tattered gray blanket, stepped into a doorway to escape a light rain, watching the flow of people on their way to the high-end restaurants that lined the street. Across town in Hollywood the next morning, homeless people were wandering up and down Sunset Boulevard, pushing shopping carts and slumped at bus stops. More homeless men and women could be found shuffling along the boardwalks of Venice and Santa Monica, while a few others were spotted near the heart of Beverly Hills, the very symbol of Los Angeles wealth. And, as always, San Julian Street, the infamous center of Skid Row on the south edge of downtown Los Angeles, was teeming: a small city of people were making the street their home in a warm December sun, waiting for one of the many missions there to serve a meal. At a time when cities across the country have made significant progress over the past decade in reducing the number of homeless, in no small part by building permanent housing, the problem seems intractable in the County of Los Angeles…”

New faces of homelessness, series homepage, November, 2010, Racine Journal Times: “Racine has a large homeless student population. This series examines what those students face and how they cope…”

To test housing program, some are denied aid, By Cara Buckley, December 8, 2010, New York Times: “It has long been the standard practice in medical testing: Give drug treatment to one group while another, the control group, goes without. Now, New York City is applying the same methodology to assess one of its programs to prevent homelessness. Half of the test subjects - people who are behind on rent and in danger of being evicted - are being denied assistance from the program for two years, with researchers tracking them to see if they end up homeless. The city’s Department of Homeless Services said the study was necessary to determine whether the $23 million program, called Homebase, helped the people for whom it was intended. Homebase, begun in 2004, offers job training, counseling services and emergency money to help people stay in their homes. But some public officials and legal aid groups have denounced the study as unethical and cruel, and have called on the city to stop the study and to grant help to all the test subjects who had been denied assistance…”

Report reveals rise in homelessness, By Mary Vorsino, November 17, 2010, Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “The number of homeless people on Oahu rose 5 percent under one key measure in the last fiscal year, according to a new report that also sheds new light on the health and education of homeless children. Advocates say the study helps illustrate how the recession has driven many households living paycheck-to-paycheck into homelessness. ‘We’re still seeing people struggling,’ said Debbie Shimizu, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers-Hawaii chapter. ‘People are still trying to adjust.’ The report, by the University of Hawaii Center on the Family, said 9,781 homeless people received outreach or shelter services on Oahu last year, a 5 percent increase…”

• Homeless students on the rise throughout Washington, By Carol Smith, October 24, 2010, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “School districts around the state are grappling with how to help growing populations of homeless students, even as budget cuts further slash their ability to meet their federal obligation to do so. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, school districts are required to identify and report homeless students and to guarantee those students transportation so they can stay at their original schools even if they have been forced to find emergency shelter outside the district. Being homeless can affect how children learn, can lead to depression, and can be misdiagnosed as learning disabilities, labels that stick with a child for years…”
• Homelessness can cause mental problems in kids, By Carol Smith, October 24, 2010, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “The truest victims of homelessness are young children, who have no control over the decisions that put them there, and no power to change their circumstances. The typical homeless families in the country are headed by young women in their 20s, typically with two children. Nearly half those kids are under age 5. The consequences of homelessness can be devastating and long-lasting for young children. By age 8, one in three homeless children has a mental health problem that affects their functioning, said Karen Hudson, social worker with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a national expert on homeless children…”

A growing problem: Fresh out of foster care and homeless, By Carol Smith, October 18, 2010, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Fueled by high unemployment and high housing costs, shelters for young adults in King County are turning people away in record numbers. The legacy of a failing foster care system and young people stranded by the crack epidemic of the late 1980s, the record demand experienced by these shelters illustrates a new face of homelessness, and comes even as the number of beds for young adults has been expanding. Homeless families are overwhelmingly headed by young women with young children. Yet the group driving this trend — young adults ages 18-24 — is generally under-counted and under-represented when solutions are envisioned. Relatively few resources are being directed to prevent them from producing new generations of homeless families…”

• Chronic homelessness down 42 percent, new Utah report says, By Marjorie Cortez, October 13, 2010, Deseret News: “Utah has experienced a 42 percent downturn in chronic homelessness from the previous year, a new report shows. Researchers and human services providers attribute the decline to a 10-year initiative that places the homeless in housing sooner and connects them to an array of services and case management to deal with issues that contribute to homelessness…”
• Number of homeless Utah kids skyrockets, By Julia Lyon, October 14, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “The lingering recession has taken a toll on Utah’s youngest residents, leading to a 48 percent increase in the number of homeless school-age children since 2008, according to state data released Wednesday. Nearly 12,000 children were homeless in January 2010, meaning their families had lost their homes and were typically staying with friends or relatives, officials said at the annual Homeless Summit in downtown Salt Lake City. In the Salt Lake City School District this fall, one girl was staying with friends after her mother was deported. Another teenager stayed with relatives, finishing high school in Utah after his family left the state for work in Montana. Statewide, the numbers of homeless children jumped from 8,016 in 2008 to 10,388 in 2009 and 11,883 in 2010…”
• D.C. still lacks enough shelter for homeless families, By Nathan Rott, October 13, 2010, Washington Post: “With cold weather just weeks away, the District has shelved a plan to expand its already packed shelter for homeless families at the former D.C. General Hospital, a decision that advocates fear could leave vulnerable families even worse off than last winter. A month after pledging to do a better job of sheltering the city’s homeless this winter, District leaders haven’t figured out how best to meet that promise. Meanwhile, the Family Emergency Shelter, which can house 135 families, is nearly full. And last week, 67 more families were waiting for emergency housing, with no place else to go, according to Omega Butler, chief of operations at the Virginia Williams Resource Center, which helps find housing for homeless families…”
• R.I. homeless shelters to reach record number of visits in 2010, By Chris Barrett, October 14, 2010, Providence Business News: “Visits to homeless shelters will reach record levels in 2010, the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless predicted Thursday. The advocacy group expects 4,340 people will visit shelters by the Dec. 31, the highest number since records started 25 years ago. Last year, 3,371 people visited shelters…”

Number of homeless students in Oregon continues to increase, By Anne Williams, September 23, 2010, Register-Guard: “Oregon public schools continued to see swelling numbers of homeless students in 2009-10, a testament to the reach and tenacity of a stubborn recession. More than three in every 100 students - 19,040 - met the federal definition of homelessness last year, an increase of 5.5 percent over 2008-09, according to a state report released Wednesday. The uptick surprised no one on the front lines of providing services to homeless families. ‘We see how the recession has hit,’ said Janet Beckman, the liaison to homeless families in the Springfield School District, which counted 482 homeless students last year, up from 464 the year before. ‘We know that we’re seeing families we’ve never seen before, that have never been in this type of situation before. There’s been a shift in the type of people who are needing assistance.’ But the increase between the two years wasn’t as large as the previous year’s 14 percent…”

Number of families in shelters rises, By Michael Luo, September 11, 2010, New York Times: “For a few hours at the mall here this month, Nick Griffith, his wife, Lacey Lennon, and their two young children got to feel like a regular family again. Never mind that they were just killing time away from the homeless shelter where they are staying, or that they had to take two city buses to get to the shopping center because they pawned one car earlier this year and had another repossessed, or that the debit card Ms. Lennon inserted into the A.T.M. was courtesy of the state’s welfare program. They ate lunch at the food court, browsed for clothes and just strolled, blending in with everyone else out on a scorching hot summer day. ‘It’s exactly why we come here,’ Ms. Lennon said. ‘It reminds us of our old life.’ For millions who have lost jobs or faced eviction in the economic downturn, homelessness is perhaps the darkest fear of all. In the end, though, for all the devastation wrought by the recession, a vast majority of people who have faced the possibility have somehow managed to avoid it. Nevertheless, from 2007 through 2009, the number of families in homeless shelters - households with at least one adult and one minor child - leapt to 170,000 from 131,000, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development…”

• The fastest-growing group among local homeless: families, By Lornet Turnbull, August 28, 2010, Seattle Times: “On this chilly May night in the parking lot of Southcenter mall, Cherie Moore is growing anxious. She and her 17-year-old son, Cody Barnes, sit almost unmoving in the cab of their old Ford Ranger, all their belongings crammed in the back - their 32-inch flat-screen television, a prized movie collection, Cody’s video games. Moore is down to her last $6. It’s nearing 10 o’clock and it’s been hours since the two have had a meal. Mall security has been circling. Moore knows they can’t spend the night parked here, but the 49-year-old single mother, born and raised in South King County, has no clue where to go. ‘I’m mentally exhausted,’ she says. While overall homelessness in King County has steadied, it appears to be rising among families, a trend playing out across the nation. Parents with children are the fastest-growing yet least-visible segment of the homeless population, far more likely to be doubled up in the homes of friends or living in their cars than to be at a busy intersection asking for help…”
• Refugees face homelessness all over again in U.S., By Lornet Turnbull, August 29, 2010, Seattle Times: “Every few weeks or so, the family of 10 would pack up and move yet again - the father and boys finding a bed or space on the floor with family friends in one part of King County, the mother and girls in another. Somali refugees who were first resettled in upstate New York before relocating here last fall, they shuffled between the homes of friends willing to put them up, sometimes sharing two- or three-bedroom units with the eight or 10 people who lived there. Once, the mother recounts, all 10 shared a single bedroom in a home, using each other as pillows to get through the nights. Refugee families like this one - displaced people from war-torn parts of the world - are confronting homelessness all over again in their new homeland…”
• Gates housing-first plan doesn’t come with housing money, By Lornet Turnbull, August 29, 2010, Seattle Times: “In the late 1990s, as out-of-work Ohio residents flocked to Columbus in search of jobs, many found themselves in a new predicament: They were homeless. The support system meant to help them, much like the one now in King County, was a network of agencies, each with different rules - a labyrinth with no clear way in and no easy way out. Families making repeated calls in search of help overwhelmed the system. And when putting them up in hotels became too costly, shelters started turning families away. In response, officials in Columbus created a more streamlined system - ‘one front door,’ they called it - a one-stop center that parents and children in need could enter day or night. The Columbus approach became a national model for helping families escape homelessness, and key parts of it are being incorporated in what ultimately could be a top-to-bottom overhaul of how homeless families in three Puget Sound counties are helped…”

Special Report: Homelessness in Fort Collins, August 19, 2010, The Coloradoan: “This Coloradoan special report examines homelessness in Fort Collins with a focus on how the newly launched Homeward 2020 plan will work to end the issue of homelessness in the next decade…”

• Feds offer aid to renters as well as homeowners, By Kathleen Pender, August 15, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle: “Congress and the Obama administration have committed tens of billions of dollars to keep homeowners in their homes. Renters, who make up about one-third of households nationwide - and close to two-thirds in San Francisco and other large cities - wish the government would do a little more for them. For homeowners, Obama’s Making Home Affordable program obtained $50 billion from the Troubled Assets Relief Program plus $25 billion, mainly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Originally this money was supposed to help homeowners refinance or modify subprime mortgages (which qualified as troubled assets). More recently it has been used to help those who can’t pay their mortgage because they are unemployed. Last week, the Treasury said it is using $2 billion to help unemployed homeowners in 17 states, including California…”
• Habitat for Humanity uses federal funds to rehab metro Detroit homes, By Tammy Stables Battaglia, August 16, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Habitat for Humanity, an agency known for building new houses, is using funds from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program to rehab old ones. The program, created in 2008 under President George W. Bush, provides communities and organizations funding to redevelop residential properties. That money must be allocated to projects by Sept. 19. In 2006, seven of 52 Habitat homes in Michigan were rehabs. The organization rehabbed 104 of its 221 homes during the first three months of this year, and there are dozens more projects to be completed, Habitat officials said…”
• Red tape slows North Texas agencies in disseminating federal funds to fight homelessness, By Neena Satija, August 15, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Getting federal stimulus money to those in need had a slow start in North Texas, with understaffed agencies bogged down in paperwork. Now that the initiative is in full swing - the job has only gotten harder. North Texas received $25 million for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing program in September. As of March, it had only spent $2 million. Now, it has spent $7 million and helped 7,800 households. But a faster flow of dollars means a bigger maze of red tape…”

Las Vegas shortchanged in federal funding for homeless, By By Joe Schoenmann, August 18, 2010, Las Vegas Sun: “Homeless numbers in greater Las Vegas have topped 13,000, with the recession leaving people jobless, then pushing parents and children out of their homes and onto the street. It’s happening all around the country, but the human toll here could be compounded because federal formulas lead to uneven homeless funding, giving cities such as Pittsburgh more than $10,000 to serve each homeless person while the Las Vegas area receives about $500 per individual. Southern Nevada has 2 percent of the country’s homeless, but gets just 0.4 percent of $1.7 billion in funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Funding over the years has fluctuated, providing $5.8 million in 2005, $7 million in 2007 and $6.8 million in 2009…”

City program for homeless is criticized, By Javier C. Hernandez, August 8, 2010, New York Times: “It was envisioned as a way to help more homeless families leave shelters behind for good. But a signature anti-poverty program of the Bloomberg administration is stumbling because of lax oversight, according to an audit by the city comptroller, John C. Liu. The report, to be released Monday, criticizes the Department of Homeless Services for its management of Advantage, a program that provides housing subsidies to homeless people who find stable jobs and leave shelters. Under the department’s watch, the report said, landlords have pressured tenants into illegal side deals, with some residents paying up to $400 extra a month. In addition, the audit charged, the department did not adequately investigate the quality of apartments, potentially placing some families in buildings where leaks, faulty wiring and rodents were prevalent…”

Homeless Ind. students up 26 percent since 2006-07, By Ken Kusmer (AP), July 28, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Homelessness among children enrolled in Indiana public schools rose 26 percent over the two years ending in 2008-09 as the state felt the brunt of the economic downturn, a new report shows. The report this week by First Focus, a children’s advocacy group, cited recently released federal data showing that homelessness among students nationwide grew for two straight years since 2006-07. The group called on Congress to pass new funding for homeless student programs, noting that stimulus funding for that purpose is running out…”

In Haiti, the displaced are left clinging to the edge, By Deborah Sontag, July 10, 2010, New York Times: “Hundreds of displaced families live perilously in a single file of flimsy shanties planted along the median strip of a heavily congested coastal road here called the Route des Rails. Vehicles rumble by day and night, blaring horns, kicking up dust and belching exhaust. Residents try to protect themselves by positioning tires as bumpers in front of their shacks but cars still hit, injure and sometimes kill them. Rarely does anybody stop to offer help, and Judith Guillaume, 23, often wonders why. ‘Don’t they have a heart, or a suggestion?’ asked Ms. Guillaume, who covers her children’s noses with her floral skirt when the diesel fumes get especially strong. Six months after the earthquake that brought aid and attention here from around the world, the median-strip camp blends into the often numbing wretchedness of the post-disaster landscape. Only 28,000 of the 1.5 million Haitians displaced by the earthquake have moved into new homes, and the Port-au-Prince area remains a tableau of life in the ruins. The tableau does contain a spectrum of circumstances: precarious, neglected encampments; planned tent cities with latrines, showers and clinics; debris-strewn neighborhoods where residents have returned to both intact and condemnable houses; and, here and there, gleaming new shelters or bulldozed territory for a city of the future…”

• Administration broadens effort to fight homelessness, By Henri E. Cauvin, June 23, 2010, Washington Post: “The Obama administration released a strategy Tuesday to end homelessness by expanding programs to secure housing for veterans and families with young children and by building on efforts to help chronically homeless people. With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq highlighting the needs of veterans and the economic crisis straining more families, the administration’s plan widens the role envisioned for the federal government in curbing and ending homelessness. It does not commit additional federal money on top of the billions of dollars already budgeted by the various agencies involved in reducing and preventing homelessness. Instead, the 67-page strategy, drafted by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and unveiled Tuesday, details several smaller projects intended to spur collaboration among federal agencies and with local and state governments…”
• Obama builds on Bush success to help the homeless, Editorial, June 22, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “To see what’s happening with the homeless population in America today, consider the following ’30s.’ In the last three years, during the great recession, the number of people who are considered to be chronically homeless has decreased by 30 percent. Over the same time period, the number of homeless families who are temporarily living in shelters has increased by 30 percent, according to a report last week by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The opposite trends show how far America has come in trying to solve homelessness, and where it needs to redouble its efforts. The Obama administration is attempting that extra effort with a national plan to eliminate homelessness. The plan, required by Congress, seeks to end chronic and veterans homelessness in five years - 10 years for families, youth, and children…”

• Families in homeless shelters increased 7% in ‘09, By Marisol Bello, June 15, 2010, USA Today: “The recession continued to take its toll as more families with children became homeless for the second straight year, a U.S. government report shows. The number of families in homeless shelters increased 7% to 170,129 from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2009, a report released today by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found. At the same time, the overall number of homeless people in shelters fell 2% to 1.56 million. ‘As the nation’s housing and job markets show encouraging signs of recovery, there are still far too many families who are on the brink of becoming homeless or have fallen into our shelter system,’ Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a statement…”
• More families are homeless and on the streets, By Tami Luhby, June 16, 2010, CNNMoney.com: “The Great Recession drove more families into homeless shelters in 2009, a new federal report has found. Some 170,000 families needed shelter last year, up from 159,000 in 2008, according to an annual survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There were 535,000 people in those families. Over the course of the past year, the number of people in homeless shelters dipped slightly to 1.56 million, from 1.6 million a year earlier. This translates into one of every 200 Americans. On a single night in January 2009, there were just over 643,000 homeless people nationwide. But, there are fewer people actually on the streets. More than 60% of people were in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, while 37% were on the street or in other places not meant for human habitation. In 2008, some 42% were living on the streets…”

City drops plan to charge rent to shelter residents, By Cara Buckley, June 4, 2010, New York Times: “The Bloomberg administration has abandoned a controversial decision to charge rent to working homeless families living at city shelters, officials announced on Friday. Instead, under a new agreement that could start in September, such families would be required to set aside a part of their monthly earnings in a savings account that they can have access to once they leave the shelter system. ‘This plan will make it easier for homeless families to move into permanent housing with savings in the bank,’ said State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, who represents parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn and pushed for the new agreement, which had the support of city and state officials, as well as advocates for the homeless. Steven Banks, attorney in chief at the Legal Aid Society, which was poised to sue the city if it had continued charging rent to the working homeless families in shelters, described the new plan as a ‘huge step forward…’”

• Hawaii homelessness still rising in wake of recession’s job cuts, By Mary Vorsino, May 5, 2010, Honolulu Advertiser: “Despite signs of an economic recovery, advocates warn that many Hawai’i families are still teetering close to homelessness - or falling into it - as they run through their savings. Shelters islandwide report a steady flow of people coming in who are direct victims of the recession, after losing their jobs or seeing their pay or hours cut. And preliminary results from the state’s annual homeless point-in-time count, conducted in January and to be released this month, show homelessness rose 10 to 15 percent from last year in parts of O’ahu, advocates who oversaw the survey said…”
• Homeless numbers on the rise in metro area, By Helmut Schmidt, May 5, 2010, Forum of Fargo-Moorhead: “Kelvin Pederson and Bruce Wang can tell you a thing or two about homelessness. Pederson, 55, hasn’t had a place of his own for a year. Wang hasn’t had a true home for six years by his reckoning. The two residents at Moorhead’s Churches United for the Homeless said a loss of cheap housing, transportation and lack of credit are among the biggest issues that keep people homeless in the Fargo-Moorhead metro area. ‘I can starve to death and have a roof over my head,’ Pederson said. ‘Or eat and be homeless,’ said Wang, finishing the thought. Both have noticed an increase in the number of homeless people in the area. ‘Every day there’s people looking for beds,’ Pederson said. A survey released Tuesday of North Dakota homelessness - which included Moorhead - backs that up, showing double-digit percentage increases in homelessness the past two years…”

• Count of Dallas County homeless finds fewer living on the streets long-term, By Kim Horner, April 26, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Homelessness in Dallas County increased 1 percent - to 5,750 - during another year of difficult economic times, according to a new survey by the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. But the annual count, conducted Jan. 28, showed major progress in the city’s efforts to combat long-term homelessness among those with mental illnesses and addictions. The number of people considered chronically homeless dropped 14 percent. And the number of families on the street also dropped. ‘We’re trying to end chronic homelessness, and we got that number to go down significantly this year,’ said Mike Rawlings, a businessman who serves as Dallas’ homeless czar. He attributed the success to new permanent supportive housing programs that provide apartments and services, such as mental health care…”
• Honolulu homeless move tents onto sidewalks in legal loophole, By Mary Vorsino, April 24, 2010, Honolulu Advertiser: “In the wake of a ban on tents in city parks that police started enforcing Monday, more homeless appear to be setting up camp on sidewalks - something the city says is legal as long as they don’t block pedestrian traffic. Yesterday, several advocates and urban Honolulu residents said they had noticed more people living in tents or makeshift shelters on sidewalks recently. But advocates also pointed out that the ban prompted a good number of people to move into homeless shelters or to get on waiting lists for shelters…”

• Handing out money to stave off homelessness, By Peter S. Goodman, April 19, 2010, New York Times: “Two years into a merciless downward spiral, Antonio Moore was threatened with living on the street. He had lost his $75,000-a-year job as a mortgage consultant, his three-bedroom house with a Jacuzzi, his Lexus sedan. He could no longer pay even the rent on his cramped studio apartment - not on his $10-an-hour part-time job as a fry cook at a fast food restaurant. Faced with eviction, he was staring last month at the imminent prospect of joining the teeming ranks of the homeless. His last hope was a new $1.5 billion federal program aimed at preventing that fate. Within days of applying, a check for $775 was on its way to Mr. Moore’s landlord, enabling him to stay - at least for now. Much like the Great Depression, when millions of previously working people came to rely on a new social safety net for their sustenance, a swelling group of formerly middle-class Americans like Mr. Moore, 30, is seeking government aid for the first time. Without help, say economists, many are at risk of slipping permanently into poverty, even as economic conditions improve…”
• Homeless families in motels decline, By Nancy H. Gonter, April 18, 2010, Springfield Republican: “State statistics show the number of homeless families living in motels across the commonwealth has declined over the past two months, but it is still costing close to $2 million a month to provide them places to live. State and regional leaders in the efforts to address homelessness say a continuing need for more ‘affordable housing’ to provide these families a new start remains at the root of the problem. And, they caution that the stagnant economy and expectations for state budget reductions threaten to force even more families onto the streets in the months ahead…”

Plan would require homeless to work to qualify for rent subsidies, By Julie Bosman, April 13, 2010, New York Times: “The Bloomberg administration is planning to require more homeless families to get jobs in order to qualify for rent subsidies, city officials said Tuesday. For the last three years, the city had provided certain homeless families with vouchers good for one or two years of free or steeply discounted rent. Since the program began, more than 18,000 families, and some single adults, have received the so-called Advantage vouchers, more than 7,500 of them last year. Most of those families qualified for the vouchers because they had already found work, and as a result were eligible to pay only $50 toward their rent each month for up to two years. But families who had become the subject of child welfare investigations were granted an even-more-generous voucher, good for up to two years of free rent - because of their vulnerability. For the last three years, the city had provided certain homeless families with vouchers good for one or two years of free or steeply discounted rent. Since the program began, more than 18,000 families, and some single adults, have received the so-called Advantage vouchers, more than 7,500 of them last year…”

• City orders end to sending homeless to illegal houses, By Julie Bosman, April 7, 2010, New York Times: “For years, homeless people were sent by the city to illegal boarding houses, places with crowded conditions, rows of bunk beds and vermin. For many of the buildings’ landlords, it was an easy way to turn a run-down house into a fairly lucrative operation - tenants were charged hundreds of dollars each month for little more than a mattress. ‘There was a situation where individuals realized very quickly they could change their home into an illegal setup and make money,’ said Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker. On Wednesday, the city said it was going to act decisively to end the practice. More than 200 staff members in shelters run by nonprofit organizations and the Department of Homeless Services will be told to stop referring homeless people to buildings that have been found to be unsafe based on inspections by city agencies…”
• Federal survey finds homelessness, shelters are more expensive than housing, By Ted Roelofs, April 7, 2010, Grand Rapids Press: “A new federal survey finds that housing the homeless in emergency shelters can be more costly than the typical cost of rent or transitional housing. For Grand Rapids, the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment is just under $600, compared to a cost of $744 a month at the Guiding Light Mission. And while the mission also offers three meals a deal and day shelter for that cost, Executive Director Stuart Ray said the point is this: It costs more to house the homeless than prevent the loss of a home in the first place…”

• Study: Homelessness up sharply in Minn., By Toni Randolph, March 31, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “The number of homeless people in Minnesota has risen sharply over the past three years, according to a study released Wednesday by the Wilder Foundation. The study counted 9,452 homeless people in Minnesota during a one-day survey conducted last October. That’s up 22 percent from 2006 levels. The uptick follows a six-year period of relative stability in the homeless numbers…”
• Ranks of homeless rising in Minnesota, By Warren Wolfe, March 30, 2010, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribunre: “Homelessness in Minnesota rose 22 percent in the past three years, reaching the highest level in at least two decades, according to initial findings from a statewide survey by Wilder Research of St. Paul. Analysts blamed the weak economy. There were 9,452 men, women and children in shelters, transitional housing and on the streets during the one-day survey conducted last October, up from 7,751 in 2006, according to findings being made public Wednesday…”

Apartment rents cheaper than stays in homeless shelters, By Marisol Bello, March 25, 2010, USA Today: “Cities, states and the federal government pay more to provide the homeless with short-term shelter and services than what it would cost to rent permanent housing, the U.S. government reports. A study of 9,000 families and individuals being released today by the Department of Housing and Urban Development finds that costs to house the newly homeless vary widely, depending on the type of shelter and social services provided by the six cities in the report. Emergency shelter for families was the most costly. In Washington, D.C., the average bill for a month in an emergency shelter ranges from $2,500 to $3,700. In Houston, the average is $1,391…”

• Number of people living on New York streets soars, By Julie Bosman, March 19, 2010, New York Times: “The Bloomberg administration said Friday that the number of people living on New York’s streets and subways soared 34 percent in a year, signaling a setback in one of the city’s most intractable problems. Appearing both startled and dismayed by the sharp increase, a year after a significant drop, administration officials attributed it to the recession, noting that city shelters for families and single adults had been inundated. Robert V. Hess, the commissioner of homeless services, said in a subdued news conference that the city began feeling the increase in its vast shelter system more than two years ago. ‘And now we’re seeing the devastating effect of this unprecedented poor economy on our streets as well,’ Mr. Hess said. The city’s annual tally indicated an additional 783 homeless people on the streets and in the subway system, for a total of 3,111, up from 2,328 last year. That is in addition to almost 38,000 people living in shelters, which is near the city’s high…”
• A shelter for families in need of a push, By Julie Bosman, March 21, 2010, New York Times: “Denise Benson runs a no-nonsense, no-frills homeless shelter for the city in Queens. There is no common room for lounging and watching television. Most homeless families meet with their caseworkers several times a week. Staff members escort residents to job interviews and to tour available apartments. ‘We are here to say, ‘Move it along,” she said in a recent interview at the shelter, swinging her arms forward for emphasis. Ms. Benson is on the front lines of the Bloomberg administration’s unsuccessful war against homelessness. During the eight years that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been in office, the number of homeless people filling city shelters has sharply risen, currently approaching 38,000, including 8,600 families with children. The number of families entering shelters has increased by more than 50 percent in the past two years. In February, 1,152 families entered shelters. More than 400 had been in the shelter system before…”

Homeless in America’s suburbs: More women, children, jobless struggle to find places to stay, By Frank Eltman (AP), February 16, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Homelessness in rural and suburban America is straining shelters this winter as the economy founders and joblessness hovers near double digits - a ‘perfect storm of foreclosures, unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing,’ in one official’s eyes. ‘We are seeing many families that never before sought government help,’ said Greg Blass, commissioner of Social Services in Suffolk County on eastern Long Island. ‘We see a spiral in food stamps, heating assistance applications; Medicaid is skyrocketing,’ Blass added. ‘It is truly reaching a stage of being alarming.’ The federal government is again counting the nation’s homeless and, by many accounts, the suburban numbers continue to rise, especially for families, women, children, Latinos and men seeking help for the first time. Some have to be turned away…”

Hawaii’s Homeless, series homepage, Honolulu Star Bulletin:

• Fix the problem a roof at a time, By Mary Adamski and Susan Essoyan, February 17, 2010, Honolulu Star Bulletin: “The homeless situation can seem overwhelming to the point where some observers just throw up their hands. ‘When we look at the people who are homeless, sometimes there’s a feeling that, gosh, there are so many of them and they’re growing and there’s nothing that we can do about it,’ said Sylvia Yuen, director of the Center on the Family at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which tracks data on the homeless. But she and other experts say that homelessness is a multifaceted issue that can be tackled piece by piece…”

• Homeless kids: Young, invisible and largely forgotten, By Jeannette Rivera-Lyles, January 10, 2010, Orlando Sentinel: “Dymond Walker’s eyes sparkle when she talks about her future. Plan A, the 15-year-old says, is to be a veterinarian. Plan B is to work as an animal rescuer. Keeping those dreams alive is a daily struggle. Dymond and her two younger sisters, T’ara Pollins, 13, and Krystal Pollins, 11, and their mother, Shaneek Livingston, have been homeless for nine months. In that time, they have lived doubled up with a family of five, slept in a car for days and stayed in a walk-in closet with a twin bed. ‘My mom didn’t really sleep in the bed,’ Dymond said. ‘Sometimes there are three of us on the floor. We can’t curl up because the space is so tight. And it [was] hot, like 110 degrees,’ she said. The little family is the real, yet invisible face of homelessness in Osceola. According to a survey by the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, the county has 1,885 homeless people. Nearly half of those, counts show, are school-age children. In Central Florida, Osceola has the highest percentage of school-age children in its homeless population, followed by Seminole County and then Orange County, according to Homeless Services Network. Missing from these tallies are homeless children too young to be in school. In Osceola, the only county where such estimates are available, including those youngsters raises the percentage of children to nearly two-thirds of the homeless population…”
• Boost in homelessness strains families, taxpayers, By Stacie N. Galang, January 11, 2010, Salem News: “It was as if an entire neighborhood showed up on Danvers’ doorstep. Shortly before Labor Day, school administrators and town officials began to fret. Student numbers were dramatically higher than spring estimates, at one point reaching 84. ‘Sort of within a two-week time frame, we saw enrollment increase,’ school Superintendent Lisa Dana said. What town leaders didn’t realize was that the state’s burgeoning homeless population had overwhelmed family shelters. With no space left, the state had started putting families up in motels. More than 100 homeless families had been sent to live temporarily in three Danvers motels: the Days Inn, Knights Inn and Motel 6. The families came from as close as Beverly and as far as Roxbury, but primarily from the region north of Boston. As the start of school neared, the motel parents considered their options: Enroll their children in Danvers schools or ask to have them bused to their home districts, an option provided to homeless families under federal law. Soon, town officials would estimate the costs at nearly a half-million dollars. Danvers was at the center of a perfect storm. The sour economy had forced up unemployment, adding to the number of evictions and foreclosures and helping to produce the largest increase in homeless families the state has seen in generations…”

Homeless families overwhelm shelters, By Marcus Green, December 7, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Shelters in Louisville and Southern Indiana say they are struggling to cope with an increase in homeless families - turning common areas into makeshift sleeping quarters, starting waiting lists, and, in some cases, turning people away. Advocates, school and shelter officials all say they fear family homelessness is reaching record levels here, and while it’s difficult to precisely quantify, they cite a variety of indications, which include…”

• Homeless children a growing statistic, By Joseph Gidjunis, November 30, 2009, Courier-Post: “For the second time in Tracy Adkins’ life, she and her children are homeless. The 26-year-old has held several jobs, but she’s lost them in this recession. Rent remains expensive, as is every utility, she said. Now she and her two children, one 6, another 3, are sharing a room at the Anna Sample Complex in Camden, an in-demand shelter run by Volunteers of America Delaware Valley. Adkins’ 3-year-old attends preschool in Camden and her 6-year-old rides a bus to Woodbury Public Schools. Her daughter takes the bus at Woodbury’s expense to minimize separation and missed schooling. If feasible, federal law requires districts to do what is in the child’s best interests, despite the cost, officials said. More than a year into the national housing crisis and recession, Adkins’ family story isn’t rare. While some recovering economic indicators such as the country’s Gross Domestic Product and stock market offer hope that the financial crisis is on the rebound, state and local officials said they expect to see peak counts of homeless children this year…”
• Ind. sees more homeless students as economy slumps, By Deanna Martin (AP), December 1, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “The number of Indiana public school students who are homeless has jumped in recent years — and is expected to climb further — as high foreclosure and unemployment rates leave more parents struggling to provide stable homes for their children. During the 2005-2006 school year, Indiana public schools recorded 7,547 homeless students, according to an issue brief released Wednesday by the Indiana Youth Institute. The number jumped to 8,249 the following year and to 8,480 during the 2007-2008 school year — marking a 12 percent increase over two years. Those numbers do not include younger students who are not of school age or ‘unaccompanied youth’ who are especially difficult to count because they are living on their own and often do not seek help from shelters…”