Local Homless Population Rising
By: jtjackson@sbgnet.com
The number of homeless people in the Pensacola area has risen 38% in the last year... and Hurricane Ivan is partly to blame.
The EscaRosa Coalition on the Homeless says almost 4,000 people are homeless in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties.
Combined with people living in FEMA trailers.. the number jumps to 16,000.
The coalition survey cites low income, job loss and unemployment and high housing costs as factors... but officials say Ivan's impact was huge.
Lon Roberts of the EscaRosa Coalition on the Homeless says, "Nobody's experienced this before. Nobody's had people in FEMA trailers that long. We're looking at eight months and we've got families now that they're encouraging to find a place to get out, but there's still no rentals available and allot of the homes that were destroyed... they'll never be rebuilt."
The coalition says 35% of the local homeless population in both counties are children.
http://www.rebuildnorthwestflorida.com/home.asp