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-- more people relying on food pantries and emergency kitchens, but the demand is so great that about 25% of it goes unmet;
-- rising family homelessness; and
-- growing numbers of tent cities and other homeless encampments that "account for a very small percentage of people who are homeless."
"At a time of historic economic crisis, the issues of hunger and homelessness in America are more prevalent than ever," cities are hard-pressed to deal with them, and budget cuts and revenue shortfalls will impose an even greater burden in the new year and beyond.
Some other disquieting facts are as follows:
-- US households are burdened with the most severe poverty, joblessness, hunger, homelessness, and level of foreclosures and threatened personal bankruptcies since the Great Depression - with no planned relief measures to help;
-- the National Academy of Science calculates 47.4 million Americans, 15% of the population, impoverished in 2008; the true number is much higher since the government's income threshold is $22,000 for a family of four, an amount way inadequate throughout urban America where even half again as much is too little;
-- the US Department of Agriculture reported that a record 49.1 million people lacked dependable access to food in 2008;
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