Academic

Photo by USA Today

The homeless population of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina has reached unprecedented levels for a U.S. city: one in 25 residents.

An estimated 12,000 homeless accounts for 4% of New Orleans' estimated population of 302,000, says the homeless advocacy group UNITY of Greater New Orleans. That's nearly double the pre-Katrina homeless count.

And it's more than four times the rate of most U.S. cities, which have homeless populations of under 1%, said Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Atlanta (1.4%) and Washington (0.95%) have the next highest rates.

In 2005, a USA Today survey of 460 localities showed one in 400 Americans on average were homeless.

Read the USA Today report here.

If I'm doing the math right (and that's always a question), the homeless rate in the Orlando metro area is about 0.5%.

Full post as published by the 13th juror on March 20, 2008 (boomark / email).