One in 50 US kids is homeless: report

CHILD HOMELESSNESS WORST SINCE '30s: REPORT

One in 50 American children is homeless and the economic crisis hitting the United States will make the problem worse, a report released Tuesday said.
"Without a voice, more than 1.5 million of our nation's children go to sleep without a home each year," said the "America's Young Outcasts" report by the National Center on Family Homelessness.
The child homelessness crisis is the worst since the Great Depression, says the report, which looked at the years 2005-06 -- or before the economic slump had fully hit the United States.
Children without homes are twice as likely to go hungry, more than twice as likely as middle class children to have health problems, and run twice the risk of other children of repeating a grade at school, being expelled or suspended, or not finishing high school, the report said.
"At least 25 percent have witnessed violence, and 22 percent have been separated from their families," the report says of homeless children.
"About half of all school-age children experiencing homelessness have problems with anxiety and depression, and 20 percent of homeless preschoolers have emotional problems that require professional care," it said.