Study: 744,000 homeless in U.S.

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-29/1168478948318730.xml&storylist=cleveland

1/10/2007, 8:21 p.m. ET
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — There were 744,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005, according to the first national estimate in a decade.

A little more than half were living in shelters, and nearly a quarter were chronically homeless, according to the report Wednesday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, an advocacy group...

The group compiled data collected by the Department of Housing and Urban Development from service providers throughout the country. It is the first national study on the number of homeless people since 1996. That study came up with a wide range for America's homeless population: between 444,000 and 842,000...

"In the last 12 to 18 months, the homeless population has essentially exploded in Philadelphia," said Marsha Cohen, executive director of the Homeless Advocacy Project, which provides free legal services to the homeless in Philadelphia. "We are seeing big increases in singles and families, both on the street and attempting to enter the homeless system."...


On The Net:

National Alliance to End Homelessness: http://www.endhomelessness.org/


http://www.neoch.org/grapevinearticles/grpv75.htm

homeless newspapers http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=homeless+newspapers&btnG=Search

http://www.homeless.org.au/directory/news.htm

[BlueJazz]

1. And CEO's who can't do shit (Ah....Home Depot)....

....get a 207 million dollar "package"...

...Oh..Me.....What can I say?...

[mrcheerful]

2. But those ceo's earned their money, were the poor and homeless

created their problem and its wrong to take from one person to give to another. Thats what wingnuts say when you bring up welfare. Ronnie the dead said so in 1980 so it must be true, besides "they" all know someone who spends all of the free money on booze. Not to mention that most welfare people live on rib eye steak and lobster. Heard that one too.

[Dammit Ann]

3. Is that ALL?

sounds quite low to me...

[Desertrose]

4. That was my first thought.

I think this number is way too low.
WAY too low.

Not really in the realm of reality at all.

[Dammit Ann]

6. considering the economy...

and the war, I've heard of Vets coming back to no homes and the homeless situation in my town has shifted from individuals to WHOLE FAMILIES, that number seems RIDICULOUS. What's the source?

[Algorem]

7. it's probably protester-counting math

[Judi Lynn]

11. Exactly. Devaluate, diminish, deny any news which makes the administration look bad. n/t

[2Design]

5. and we are wasting money on bush's war - this is such BS n/t

[Quantess]

8. That's all? I would guess the number to be higher. (no text)

[WindRavenX]

9. I thought I heard that 1 in 4 families were one paycheck away from being on the streets...

...or is that incorrect?

I certainly think these numbers are on the low side.

[Faux pas]

10. I can bet they're fudging the numbers. I imagine it's in the

millions.

[BayCityProgressive]

12. We need a law like France

is discussing. Make housing for ALL a RIGHT.

[Faux pas]

15. Sounds pretty 'humane' to me. I don't think of boosh as being

humane in any way, shape or form.

[sofa king]

14. I practically know it.

There were at least a dozen homeless people in the half-mile walk between my house, the Metro, and my office. When I was in danger of going homeless myself, Arlington County informed me that it wasn't the end of the road: the county offered various forms of support to "thousands" of people with no fixed address within that their 26 square miles of jurisdiction.

The story goes that when Ronald Reagan turned out hundreds of insane people to live on the streets of Washington DC they were kept on the books of the closed-down facilities in which they had been housed. That way, they didn't count as homeless, though they lived on heating grates.

[Faux pas]

16. Fuzzy math comes to mind. I'm surprised they even admitted

to the 700,000 plus. Yeah, old raygun was quite the humanitarian.

[Vidar]

13. We have 2000 homeless in a community of 40,000.

This estimate is ridiculously low.

[kineneb]

20. estimate

2000 out of 40,000 = .05%

US population est.= 300 million x .05 = 15,000,000

even if I am off by a zero (1,500,000), that number would still be larger than the "official" estimate...

(please check my math... my brain is foggy today)

[Vidar]

23. I'm saying the 744, 000 estimate is low., not the laocal one.

Your math is fine.

[EFerrari]

17. Oh no. Philly was looking to be a model city in dealing with housing.

This is terrible news.

((((((((((our guys)))))))))))))))

[lovuian]

18. The Depression is coming 6 years of Bush Rule and republican

policy of outsourcing and ilegal immigration

[eagler]

19. I have no doubt that this number is way too low

I have worked in homeless shelters for several years and have had chance to view the populations of shelters around the country. It varies greatly for many reasons but the number ,just in shelters, is always over one and a half million. We're being lied to as usual just like when the unemployment figures are reported. The government simply releases the number of people collecting unemployment and neglects to mention those who have fallen off the rolls for exhausting their benefits. It's too bad we don't have the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE anymore which would enable the truth about these things to be told to the American people.

[AliceWonderland]

21. Kick. Thanks for posting this. n/t

[zann725]

22. No way to REALLY count. Do they ONLY count those at shelters, or food banks,

or Welfare Offices...or those obviously sleeping ion the street? Most, I'll bet, "fall though" uncounted...since limited shelters are often full. Plus cutback on public food banks, a lot probably go hungry.

Plus all those countless 'silent' homeless souls living in their cars"...an 'invisibly' large homeless group, obviously not counted.

Yet without mailing addresses, phone numbers; and contact with family and friends gone, who 'counts' all these 'groundless' souls?

Guess IS: these homeless figures are grossly under-counted by as much as 75%.

[Le Taz Hot]

24. 744,000?

Honey, there are that many homeless in Los Angeles County.