Homeless Facts

On any given night, an estimated 842,000 people are homeless in the United States. Over the course of a year, 3.5 million people experience homelessness; 1.35 million of them are children (NCH, July 2007).
The average age of a homeless person in the United States is 9 (ABC News Study, January 2007).
Families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, representing about 41% of all homeless people (NCH, August 2007).
Requests for emergency shelter by families increased in 63% of cities in 2005. US cities saw an average increase of 5% in shelter requests by families (US Conference of Mayors, 2005).
The study also found that 32% of the requests for shelter by homeless families were denied in 2005 due to a lack of resources.

There are no shelters for homeless families in Gwinnett.
The Gwinnett County School System accommodated 1,655 homeless students during the 2010-2011 school year.
In 2010 there were 21,302 evictions and 26,502 foreclosures in Gwinnett County. At the average family size of 2.5 that equals approximately 119,510 family members that lost housing in 2010.
The National Center on Family Homelessness reports that 1-in-50 children in America are homeless each year. According to this statistic, Gwinnett County has an estimated 6,000 homeless children each year.
It is estimated that 60% of the homeless family population in Gwinnett County are children and 50% of the children are under the age of six.