MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — The number of homeless families is increasing sharply in Jackson County in southern Oregon.
The Mail Tribune reports the county’s percentage of homeless single parents with children rose from 9 percent in 2009 to 23 percent in 2010.
For two-parent families over the same period, the numbers jumped from 3 percent to 29 percent.
Ed Angeletti is the programs director for the social service agency ACCESS Inc. He calls it a “huge increase” and predicts the numbers will go even higher when the next count is made in January.
Angeletti says layoffs, furloughs and increasing numbers of foreclosure notices are signs many people are just a paycheck away from being homeless.
