David Ashby reaches Washington

There are easier ways to get from Orlando to Washington, D.C., than walking back roads in the dead of summer, zigzagging to homeless shelters along the way.
But for 14-year-old David Ashby of College Park, suffering was the whole point. The Lee Middle School graduate set out in June on a 1,100-mile journey of self-sacrifice to [...]

CBS News: Hope for Homeless

CBS News has been filing quite a few stories on the rising number of homeless in America. Thanks to my friend Sandi for the heads up on this report. Click anywhere and you’ll go to the CBS News site. Right now, the link is not working properly. Scroll on the right for the report called [...]

After decades apart, woman finds mom — homeless in Orlando

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Jessica Wisnoski and Lani Burgos are reunited after Wisnoski spent $20,000 and decades searching for the mother she hadn’t seen since she was a toddler.
Susan Jacobson
Sentinel Staff Writer
July 20, 2009
For nearly four decades, all Jessica Wisnoski had to remember her mother was a tattered photo of 2-year-old Wisnoski sitting [...]

Orlando 3rd ‘meanest’ city for homeless, study finds

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Advocacy groups rank Top 10 cities that ‘criminalize’ homelessness
Kate Santich
Sentinel Staff Writer
July 14, 2009
The City Beautiful? How about “The City Mean”?
Two national advocacy groups for the homeless ranked Orlando as the third “meanest” city in the nation Tuesday, citing a trend toward criminalizing activities that come with living on [...]

Orlando homeless on rise: Many fall off economy’s ‘edge’

Nearly 10,000 people are likely to be homeless in Metro Orlando at some point this year, including a dramatically higher number of recently discharged veterans and school-age children, according to an analysis released Wednesday.
The projections, made by the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, represent a 17 percent increase over 2008, and some experts expect [...]

Florida among worst in U.S. for homeless kids

Kate Santich | Sentinel Staff Writer
March 11, 2009
Florida has one of the highest rates of homeless children in the nation, with as many as 50,000 kids living in shelters, motels, cars or doubled up with another family.
A detailed report released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness found Florida ranked 46th out of 50 [...]

A sobering statistic …

USA Today Snapshots
States with the biggest share of homeless on the streets
About 42% of the nation’s 672,000 homeless are unsheltered. States with the highest percentage of unsheltered homeless:
CAlifornia 70%
Nevada 62%
Michigan 59%
Georgia 58%
FLORIDA 57%
Source: National Alliance to End Homelessness (www.endhomelessness.org)