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China / Government

Millions homeless in US: report

(Xinhua) Updated: 2012-05-25 19:40

BEIJING - Millions of homeless people wander around streets in the United States, according to a Chinese report on the US human rights record released on Friday.

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011, released by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China, said that about 2.3 million to 3.5 million Americans did not have a place that they called home to sleep in the night, and the number of homeless families grew by 20 percent between 2007 and 2010.

Over the past five years, the percentage of singles arriving at shelters after living with family or elsewhere in the community has jumped from 39 percent to 66 percent, the report said.

The report also cited related survey results as saying that there were an all-time record of more than 41,000 homeless people in New York City, including 17,000 homeless children.

On any given night in Santa Clara County, California State, 7,045 people were homeless according to a 2011 Santa Clara County Homeless Census and Survey, and advocates estimated that Chicago had up to 3,000 homeless youths in need of shelter on any given night, said the report.

The problems concerning human rights were the reflection of the US ideology and political system that ignored people's economic, social and culture rights, and the financial crisis was far from being the sole reason, the report said.

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