More Homeless Veterans and Families on Central Florida Streets
Friday, June 10, 2011
By: Tom Parkinson

June 10, 2011 | WMFE - This year's homeless head count shows a substantial increase in the number of military veterans and families with children on the streets. Every year, volunteers visit homeless shelters, parks, streets and camps to determine how many people are homeless in Central Florida on that day.

This year the group counted all the homeless people the volunteers could find on the night of January 28th 2010 in Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties. Results of the “Point-in-Time” homeless census are being released next week.  Cathy Jackson, Executive Director of  the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida gave 90.7 news an early look at some of that data.
Jackson says the group counted 4950 homeless children attending public schools in the tri-county area. That’s a substantial increase from the 3825 children that were counted in January of 2009. 
Among the more disturbing figures, Jackson said, is the count of more than 2200 homeless military veterans on the streets and in the 150 homeless camps in Central Florida. That number is up from by about a thousand from the same time a year ago.
90.7’s Tom Parkinson asked Ms. Jackson to discuss some of the reasons behind the dramatic spike in the number of homeless veterans.