HUD Report on Homelessness in the US

Posted on June 15, 2011 by townsend

• 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…”