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January 2, 2008

Mayors’ report says cities are seeing more emergency food requests

by Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON — A majority of U.S. cities participating in a recent survey have seen an increase in the number of requests for emergency food assistance, the U.S. Conference of Mayors reports.

The Washington-based conference issued its annual Hunger and Homelessness Survey on Dec. 17, saying that 16 of the 19 cities that responded to questions about hunger saw increases in requests for emergency food aid in the last year. In addition, an average of 17 percent of people seeking food assistance are not receiving it.

The report by the conference analyzed homelessness and hunger in 23 of America’s major cities, including Boston, Los Angeles and Miami. Nineteen of those cities said they expect requests for food assistance to increase in 2008.

“Although 87 percent of our nation’s wealth is generated in our nation’s cities, hunger and homelessness persists in most of our country’s cities and urban centers,” said Conference President Douglas Palmer, the mayor of Trenton, NJ.

The survey found that the lack of affordable housing was the most common cause of homelessness for households with children. Other causes included poverty and domestic violence. For single individuals, mental illness and substance abuse were among the most common causes.

Twelve of the cities in the survey — or 52 percent — reported that homeless people seeking shelter are turned away some or all of the time. But that number is a marked decrease from 2006, when 77 percent reported that homeless were turned away from emergency shelters.

For more than two decades, the conference has documented the extent of homelessness and hunger. The 23 participating cities in the 2007 survey are members of the conference’s task force addressing those issues.

Other cities included in the study are Charleston, SC; Charlotte, NC; Chicago; Cleveland; Denver; Des Moines; Detroit; Kansas City, MO; Louisville; Nashville, TN; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, OR; Providence, RI; Salt Lake City; San Francisco; Santa Monica, CA; Seattle; St. Paul, MN; and Trenton, NJ.