United States Racks up More than a Half-Million Officially Homeless Citizens

April 19, 2019 (EIRNS)—Our nation has not yet recovered from Wall Street’s destruction of the general welfare in the 2007-2008 crash, even as the trans-Atlantic financial system enters an even greater breakdown crisis. According to the Annual Point-in-Time Count of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), over a half-million Americans—552,830 people—were homeless on a single night in 2018. Some 30% of these people are estimated to have no access to any year-round shelter bed, and therefore live on the streets, in abandoned buildings, or at other locations not fit for human beings.

Further, 33% of America’s homeless are families with children; 67% are individuals. While 7% of the total homeless are youth under the age of 25 living on their own, veterans make up another 7% of the total. Those who are chronically homeless—people with mental or physical disabilities dumped out of the welfare system—make up 18%.