While Northeastern Wisconsin is unique in many respects from the rest of the country, when it comes to homelessness, we’re right on par. Consider the following statistics:

• Homeless families with children represent 41 percent of the U.S. homeless population and are the fastest growing segment, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors; nearly half of homeless people in suburban and rural areas are in families with children.
• More than 3.5 million Americans experienced homelessness in 2007.
• 1.35 million children in America were homeless during 2007.
• According to Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 1.6 million people used a homeless shelter in the United States or lived in transitional housing between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008, more than half a million were American families.
• The demographic of homeless changed to include more families who live in the suburbs and rural communities – a 9% increase over the same time period.
• As of July 2008, ongoing unemployment claims jumped 159,000 to 6.88 million, the highest on record dating back to 1967.
• The face of homelessness is changing to include a wider swath of the American population – skilled and unskilled, educated and uneducated, rural and urban – while those bearing the greatest brunt of this change are children.
• For Freedom House, this meant twice the number of families entering its center in 2009 over 2008 – well before the brunt of the economic crisis had hit.
• 31% of single parent families attributed their homelessness to a breakdown in their family in a study reported in the American Journal of Public Health; only 20% claimed it was due to economic hardship.
• Children who experience homelessness from a very young age have a great disadvantage in cognitive development due to lack of food, proper shelter and increased stress.
• Over 8% of Wisconsin’s seniors live in poverty.
• Over 735 children were reported homeless in the Green Bay school district in 2008-2009; that number was 600 a year earlier.