The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) annual report to Congress today will reflect the changing face of homelessness — one that includes more families and more people in rural areas.
The number of homeless people across the country has remained fairly steady — approximately 1.6 million people used a homeless shelter or lived in transitional housing between October 2007 and September 2008 — but families using such services was up 9 percent.
Suburban and rural residents constitute about a third of those using such services. That figure is up 24 percent from the previous year.
Point in time survey
HUD's annual "point in time" survey attempts to count the number of homeless people at a single moment.
The January 2008 survey showed 664,000 people living in shelters or on the streets — 7,500 less than the previous year's count.
Officials point out the survey occurred just before the economic crisis went full-tilt.
To help correct such time lags, HUD has commenced regional, quarterly surveys, the first of which will also be presented to Congress today.
In the nine regions surveyed for the quarterly report, the number of people entering homeless shelters increased from 60,371 in January to 61,280 in March.