Facts about homelessness

The homeless families of Mercer County live in cramped single rooms in motels along Route 1. Parking lots are playgrounds. Ice buckets are refrigerators and dressers do double duty as pantries and changing tables.

The average age of a homeless person in the U.S. today is nine. In Mercer County the average age is seven.

For each of the 2.6 million families now without housing or whose housing should be replaced, there are at least four other families who are housed, but can only pay their housing costs by going without adequate food, clothing, or other basic needs.

Unless we make a change, the situation will only worsen in the coming decade for two reasons: the income gap is widening and the number of well-maintained, affordable housing for low-income people is diminishing.

In 1996, there were 92 families with children who had sought temporary shelter in single motel rooms in Mercer County.

Families paying high percentages of their income for housing are forced to forgo other basic necessities such as food, clothing, and healthcare in order to pay their rent.

More than 17.6 million households with children experience at least one major housing problem, including cost burdens, lead paint hazards, and overcrowding.

Inadequate housing impacts the physical and psychological development of children and the problems can be irreversible.

More than 9.6 million households with children live in housing highly likely to contain lead paint hazards, almost half of which have children under the age of six.

The nation’s budget is being cut drastically at a time when housing problems continue to expand for millions of families.