The Economic Consequences of Homelessness in The US

22 The 3 most commonly cited causes of homelessness are poverty, lack of affordable
housing, and unemployment
21 In any given year about 1 out of every 200 American adults will be homeless
20 A growing number of anti-homelessness laws around the country has caused the
United States to receive criticism from the United Nations Human Rights Committee
19 At least 30 cities have criminalized giving food to the homeless
18 In some areas, like Hawaii, officials have attempted to solve homelessness by
providing one way plane tickets elsewhere
17 A study at Princeton found that our brains tend to process images of homeless
people more like they process objects than actual human beings
16 There is actually an entire generation of homeless Japanese youths who live and
sleep in internet cafes
15 A 59 year old homeless man in North Carolina held up a bank for $1 in order to be
sent to jail and receive healthcare
14 Fatherless homes produce 70% of high school dropouts, 85% of kids in detention
facilities, and 90% of homeless children
13 Nearly one quarter of homeless people in the United States are veterans
12 Nearly half of those veterans have a diagnosable mental illness
11 There has been a National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa every year for the past
century. They even crown a King and Queen.
10 The country of Albania built hundreds of thousands of bunkers under communism.
Today some of them are used to house homeless people
9 Nearly 1/3 of homeless people in the United States are younger than 24
8 About half of the youth on the street report that their parents knew they were leaving
but didn't care
7 Sylvester Stallone was homeless and even sold his dog for $50. Not long after,
however, he sold the script for Rocky and bought back his dog for $3,000
6 Nearly 20% of youths will run away at least once
5 HIV rates are up to 9 times higher among the homeless than in comparative samples
of the population
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