2008 Annual Homelessness Assessment

Book excerpt: Provides year-to-year trend info. that explores changes in the patterns of homelessness over time. Focuses on two types of national estimates of homelessness. Point-in-time estimates provide the total number of sheltered and un-sheltered homeless persons on a single-night in January. Also provides one-year estimates of the total sheltered population. The one-year estimates account for persons who used a homeless residential program at any time during a 12-month period. The report compares one-year estimates for 2007 and 2008. This report comes at a time of economic uncertainty and provides a few early indicators of how the economic downturn may be affecting the housing situation of low-income and vulnerable Americans. Illus.