Tent Cities Rise Up Across America [View All]

[Better Believe It]

In hard times, tent cities rise across the country
Associated Press
September 18, 2008

RENO, Nev. - A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer. Then others appeared — people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy, or newcomers who had moved to Reno for work and discovered no one was hiring.

Within weeks, more than 150 people were living in tents big and small, barely a foot apart in a patch of dirt slated to be a parking lot for a campus of shelters Reno is building for its homeless population. Like many other cities, Reno has found itself with a "tent city" — an encampment of people who had nowhere else to go.

From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.

Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening.

Please read the entire article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26776283

Homeless encampments are springing up around the country, including this one next to the homeless shelter in downtown Reno, Nev.



Robert Scott Cook, originally from Alaska, sits with one of his dogs, Zoey, at the tent city that sprung up next to the homeless shelter in Reno, Nev.