May 15, 2020 / By Jessie Yeung and Adam Renton, CNN
Homelessness in the US may increase 45% by end of the year, economic expert warns.
The United States could see its homeless population increase by 40% to 45% this year, according to an analysis by an economics professor at Columbia University.
The report was published by Community Solutions, a nonprofit organization to end homelessness.
More than 800,000 Americans will experience homelessness by this summer if it follows unemployment trends — the way it did in the earlier part of the century, said Professor Brendan O’Flaherty, also a former aide to Newark Mayor Kenneth Gibson.
“If the projections of unemployment being made now turn out to be accurate, and the relationship between unemployment and homelessness follows the historical pattern, and no other major changes occur, that’s what we can expect to happen.”
