Manhattan Adult Entertainment: Homeless in America’s suburbs: More women, children, jobless struggle to find …
Naiquan Pritchett says he was devastated when he lost his job in construction about four months ago. His bills quickly mounted and he now lives in a Long Island shelter for men. “I had been doing construction for nine years,” Pritchett said.
The crunch is seen in suburbs around the country.
Northeast of Atlanta, foreclosures rose 77 percent from 2008 to 2009, said Suzy Bus of the Gwinnett County Coalition for Health and Human Services. About 60 percent of the county’s homeless are children 9 and younger, she said.
“People equate homeless to a guy under a bridge, but it’s a lot more complex than that, and it permeates much further into our society than a lot of people realize,” Bus said.
When families lose their homes and relocate, their children’s schooling can be disrupted. Some move into extended-stay hotels that cost about $175 a week, but that sometimes exposes them to criminal activity like prostitution and drug deals, Bus said.