WASHINGTON, Dec 12: Homelessness and hunger increased in an overwhelming majority of 25 US cities in the past year, driven by the foreclosure crisis and rising unemployment, a survey showed on Friday.

Out of 25 cities across the United States surveyed by the US Conference of Mayors, 83 per cent said homelessness in general had increased over the past year while 16 cities, or nearly two-thirds of those polled, cited a rise in the number of families who had been forced out of their homes.

In Louisville, Kentucky, the number of homeless families increased 58 per cent in 2008 to 931 families from 591 people in 2007, with the rise blamed on soaring food, health care, transportation and energy prices.

Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island blamed the rise in family homelessness on evictions by landlords whose rental properties were foreclosed.

Meanwhile, the number of people seeking food assistance for the first time was up in all 21 cities with data on the issue, and was “particularly notable among working families stressed by the increase in food prices and the slowdown in the economy,” the report said.

Officials in Philadelphia told the survey that “new people coming to food cupboards are people that are employed with children.

“With food prices increasing as much as 30 per cent and incomes either staying the same or decreasing, it is impossible for them to feed their families,” the report said.—AFP