The number of homeless senior citizens will likely soar by one third over the next decade as the US population ages, a report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness warned Monday. The projection is based on the record number of so-called Baby Boomers turning 65 in the United States and current levels of poverty among the elderly. While the number of Americans aged 65 or older stood at just 3.1 million people in 1900, today the figure has risen to 37 million or 12.6 percent of the total population. By 2050, that number is expected to climb as high as 89 million people. The poverty rate among the elderly has fallen steadily from highs of around 35 percent in the 1950s, hitting around 15 percent in 1975 after Social Security measures were adopted, and hovering between nine and 11 percent in recent years. According to data from the Census Bureau used in the report, one in 10 people over the age over 65 (9.9 percent) was living under the poverty level in 2008 and had annual resources of under 10,326 dollars a year. And nearly one million people, about 2.6 percent of Americans over 65, live in live extreme poverty. In 2010, over 44,000 elderly Americans were homeless, the study found. It projected that figure would increase by 33 percent by 2020, and more than double between 2010 and 2050, to 95,000.

CHICAGO, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time ever, a homeless father was able to meet and spend time with his son thanks to family law attorney Raquel Unser. Unser, a tenacious litigator with The Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, Ltd., reunited Hugh with his 15 year old son earlier this month in a Rolling Meadows courtroom. The reunion was heartwarming as Hugh and his son are beginning their new relationship together. "Hugh would have never been able to make this connection without Raquel's passion and determination to fight for his parental rights," acknowledged veteran Chicago lawyer and fathers' rights advocate Jeffery M. Leving. Unser has an impressive track record in rejoining fathers with their children. She recently helped a father obtain joint custody with equal parenting time after the mother ran away with the child from Illinois to Washington State. Her ambition is a result of her passion for improving the well-being of children across America. The Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, Ltd. takes pride in tackling nearly unwinnable cases. Going the grueling distance for clients, Leving and his team of successful attorneys continue to achieve tremendous victories. About The Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, Ltd. Built upon passion for the health and welfare of the family and for producing highly effective legal representation for fathers, The Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving Ltd., is a nationally-recognized family law firm. Visit dadsrights.com for more information about the firm. CONTACT: Jenny Brandhorst for The Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, Ltd., +1-312-479-7246

The price of homelessness, for many, is premature death. Our homeless live about 36 percent shorter lives than our housed. And living is an even bigger luxury if you are a homeless Latina female, since you will likely only live half as long as the average housed person. To further depress you, about every hour, a child dies from poverty; many of those children are homeless. In Los Angeles, one homeless person dies per day, on average. Think about it. If one homeless person dies in just one of our cities per day, how many homeless people die daily across our nation? Our world? If they weren't homeless or poor, they wouldn't have died so prematurely -- or maybe not prematurely at all. Medical conditions are major risk factors. The link between compromised health, limited access to healthcare and poverty seems obvious. I have known many homeless people with significant medical conditions who have, for years, found it difficult to obtain regular care due to the transient homeless lifestyle and barriers like poverty and sometimes mental health conditions and addiction. Violence toward the homeless also contributes to the death toll. Formerly homeless people die young too. I've known some very sick formerly homeless people who spent time in shelter who died soon after they moved into an apartment. Imagine, a person finally gets to call a place home and then dies because of what he or she experienced on the streets and in shelters. It's simply unfair. As a part of a human community, we must mourn the loss of our homeless. Remember, sometimes no one knows or cares that they are gone. A difficult life and a tragic death should induce a sense of grief in us, and spur our fight to prevent and end homeless. We must pause to pay respect to those who died homeless and those who live homeless, remembering this high price of poverty. Places like Asheville, North Carolina and New York City mourn the homeless. Asheville is holding a Homeless Person's Memorial Service on April 3rd to mourn and commemorate the 26 homeless people who died there between last year and this winter. Some of New York City's homeless get buried at Hart Island, a potter's field, where unclaimed and unknown people are buried when they die. While it might not be the happiest of field trips, public visitation is allowed. Since 1990, the National Coalition for the Homeless, the National Consumer Advisory Board and the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council work together each year to organize Homeless Person's Memorial Day in late December. They provide resources for people interested in organizing a Homeless Person's Memorial Day event. Do you know of any homeless person's memorial services in your community? It's been established that homelessness is a social justice issue and that a home is a human right. These are certainly true when living, in and of itself, becomes a privilege for the housed.

In December 2006, The French anti-poverty organization Children of Don Quixote, began using Red tents as a symbol to draw attention to the plight of the homeless in Paris. The organization launched the campaign to coincide with a French national election. The tents were used as a visual reminder that there were over 100,000 people who were homeless in France and that shelter did not have adequate space available for all those in need and that shelters are not a substitute for long-term housing. In the months leading up to the protest, Children of Don Quixote founder Augustin Legrand spent time seeking out and interviewing those who were living outdoors without proper shelter. The stories he collected were posted to The Children of Don Quixote website and people who read them or watched videos of interviews were encouraged to join the protest. Many Parisians did. Over 200 red tents lined the Canal Saint Martin for three months and during this time many other cities in France saw similar protests take place. The campaign gained widespread public support and homelessness became an election issue that political leaders were forced to address. The mayor of Paris endorsed the campaign and leaders of all major French political parties signed the Chartre du Canal Saint Martin which was developed during the protest. The Chartre called for recognition of housing as a legally enforceable right, an end to temporary shelter and new affordable public housing. In the end the French government announced the creation of 27,000 new shelter beds across the country and introduced improvements to already existing shelters, they also guaranteed that a new law recognizing housing as a right would be passed. Red Tent is national campaign that invites the participation of all persons and organizations wishing to end homelessness in Canada. Our goal is to persuade the federal government to enact a funded National Housing Strategy that will end homelessness and ensure secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing for all persons living in Canada. Our strategy is to use red tents and like items as symbols on the streets and in the media to draw attention to Canada homelessness crisis, educate the public about the need for a funded national housing strategy and mobilize people across the country to pressure government to take action on homelessness. http://www.redtents.org/