Are there a lot more people in homeless shelters since the economy went bad?

Even when the economy was good people were still turned away from shelters due to a lack of capacity. If anything there is less people living in shelters since funding has dried up. Now people just sleep on the street or under a bridge.

Around where I’m from yes, but that has mainly been due to the budget crisis so several of these shelters had to be shut down, unfortunate.

Here in our area, the homeless shelters have never been enough for all the homeless. Now we have a lot more families living in their cars parked along the streets.

Yes, what’s not reflected in economic news are all the people who have lost their houses, and are now marginally employed ($8.50 an hour vs. $70,000 a year) and are back living with their parents or siblings. Everyone is “employed” but no longer able to live on their own in the manner to which they were accustomed. Starting over at 50 is not what people were planning on doing.

Here is a related statistic from my area, people served by the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Emergency Food Assistance in Cook County
Year 2002 Individuals 380,017
Year 2006 Individuals 499,600
Year 2010 Individuals 678,000

Here are the statistics for Wash DC:

Homeless Persons Counted at Point in Time, 2006–2010
6,157 5,757 6,044 6,228 6,539