Foreclosure Crisis Creating Larger Tent Cities

Found on CNN.com:

From Seattle to Athens, Georgia, homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.

Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they’ve experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report [PDF] by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH).

The group says the problem has worsened since the report’s release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening.

On a tangential note, the NCH has an informative page detailing the voting rights of homeless people and ways to help homeless and precariously housed people register.

Check out You Don’t Need a Home to Vote!, which includes a description of barriers homeless people face when attempting to vote.