Every night 754,000 in US homeless - Study

A homeless man walks in front of a painting of US actor James Cagney on a closed souvenirs shop on Hollywood Boulevard.

　　On any given night 754,000 people across the United States are homeless, according to a new government study on the problem released Wednesday.

　　The Department of Housing and Urban Development, in its first study of the scope of the national homelessness problem in 23 years, said that its "snapshot" study based on a three-month period in 2005 showed that two-thirds of the homeless population are men, 16 percent are women, 59 percent are ethnic minorities, 41 percent are in the 31-50 age range and 21 percent are children.

　　It also said that nearly one in five of the adult homeless are military veterans .

　　However, Philip Mangano, executive director of the United States Interagency Council of Homelessness, said that the snapshot survey does not represent the full extent of homelessness across the country.

　　"There is a divergence of opinion among researchers about the number of people who are experiencing homelessness in the course of a year," Mangano said.

　　"Some say it might be as high as one percent of the US population (three million people); others say it might be as high as two million."  

　　美国政府本周三公布的一项最新调查显示，全美每天晚上共有75.4万人无家可归。

　　这是美国住房与城市开发部23年来就无家可归问题开展的首次调查。据介绍，此项于2005年开展的为期三个月的"快速"调查显示，在无家可归的人群中，三分之二的人为男性，16%的人为女性，59%是少数民族裔，41%的人年龄在31岁至50岁之间，21%是儿童。

　　此外，在无家可归的成年人中，近五分之一的人是退伍军人。

　　然而，美国无家可归问题跨机构协调委员会的执行主任菲利普·曼格诺说，这项快速调查的结果并不能反映出美国无家可归问题的真实情况。

　　曼格诺说：“调查人员对全美一年内无家可归人数的观点存在分歧。”

　　“有的调查人员说，全年的无家可归者人数可能相当于美国总人口的1%（300万人）；另一些调查人员称，这一数字应该为200万。”

　　Vocabulary:               

　　military veteran  : 退伍军人 

 

来源：英语点津