High Risk Family Type: Healthy People 2010

Homelessness: Health Risks and Prevention

For the purpose of national census statistics and for clarification of this discussion, a homeless person is defined as one living on the street, in deserted apartment buildings or one who spends nights at a homeless shelter. Due to the difficulty of counting the homeless, statistics in recent years have been variable. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, there were 643,067 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons nationwide as of January 2008. (Preston, 2008). Another approximation stems from a study conducted by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, which estimates that 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year. (2007). These numbers are likely underrepresentative because they rely heavily on data from homeless shelters, which do not account for people living in deserted apartments...
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