Survey says local homelessness declines, but recession raises fears of reversal

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

The National Alliance to End Homelessness released a report Tuesday that showed national decrease in homeless from 2005 to 2007, but the group also expressed worry that the recession could result in more people living on the streets.

"Based on estimates of the depth likely to be reached by the current recession, 1.5 million additional Americans are likely to experience homelessness over the next two years," the National Alliance to End Homelessness reported.

The study employed numbers obtained through censuses of homeless populations in Jan. 2005 and Jan. 2005. Nationally, homelessness declined from more than 744,000 people to nearly 672,000 during that period.

The survey does not conclude how any government policies, economic trends or other factors may have led to the decline in homelessness.

The report also includes numbers for localities. In the San Bernardino area, homelessness dropped from the nearly 7,000 people who were counted in 2005 to nearly 4,500 counted in 2007.

In this season of bailouts, the National Alliance to End Homelessness called for an influx of federal dollars to put people under a roof.

The group called for $2 billion to be used to prevent homelessness and rehouse those on the streets. The Alliance also asked for increased Section 8 assistance for money to be placed into the National Housing Trust Fund, which was created by federal law last year.