Homeless Children

In the May 1991 issue of theAmerican Journal of Diseases of Children, I wrote of the health and social problems confronted by the nation's homeless children.¹In September 1992, the federal government released its 1991 poverty report, the first of the annual reports to show the effects of the current recession. With the official 1991 federal poverty line for a family of four set at an annual income of $13 924, the number of Americans living in poverty in 1991 jumped by nearly 2 million over the 1990 figure, for an overall poverty rate of 14.2%. The total number of the poor, 35.7 million, represents a 27-year high. More households now receive food stamps than at any time in the program's history. Also, as has been true for many years, about 40% of the poor are children. Given the ferocity of the recession, all of these numbers will