Homeless in New Orleans Doubled

Ricky Kees, who is employed but homeless, looks out of his tent at Duncan Plaza in New Orleans last December. The state has hired contractors to repair buildings around the plaza, and the plaza will be fenced off when it becomes a construction zone. Many of the 250 homeless people who set up camp near New Orleans City Hall were offered temporary housing, but it was a hard sell to a colony that believed the city's low-income dwellings may not be an improvement over their pup tents.

It is estimated 12,000 people are homeless, up from 6,000 before Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While other’s estimate that this number is much higher then the number of homeless, given by Vicki Judice of Unity of Greater New Orleans.

“People are coming back who were poor, who are still poor, and the rents have doubled," said Vicki Judice of Unity of Greater New Orleans. "So they can afford to move in, but they can't keep up with the rent and they're getting evicted."

Some, who reside in New Orleans that came back after the hurricane, has noticed in some cases, the rent has tripled in some areas that were reasonable before Hurricane Katrina.

Furthermore, the death rate among the homeless, has became epidemic; as with the rising cost of the US. economy, poverty is increasing at an alarming rate.