By Matthew Bigg Mon Oct 30, 9:44 AM ET
[...]
Over the course of a year more than 2 million experience homelessness, though only between 10 and 20 percent of those are chronically homeless, said Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, a federal agency.
"The majority of people who would constitute homelessness don't have significant substance abuse or mental health problems and it is beyond their dreams that they would ever find themselves in this situation," he said.
[...]
Landlords tell her that to rent she needs to show she's been working for six months, which is impossible since she only arrived in July.
Options include transitional housing and subsidized housing but to explore them she needs time and a telephone, but because she works and has little disposable cash she has neither.
A chunk of the $7 an hour she earns goes on gas for her 1996 Oldsmobile Intrigue.
[...]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061030/us_nm/life_homeless_dc