FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 14 (UPI) -- South Florida is struggling to deal with a rise in homelessness, officials and charities say.
"A new face of homeless has emerged in our community because there has been a staggering increase in family homelessness," Diana Stanley, executive director of the Lord's Place in Palm Beach County, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "When people think of the homeless, they think of the person standing on a street corner begging, but more and more it's families -- families with children."
In Fort Lauderdale, where homeless people gathering in a park have caused complaints, Mayor Jack Seiler wants to open two short-term centers where charities can feed them.
Palm Beach County, which has seen a 62 percent jump in homeless students, is building its first homeless resource center after years of delay, and towns are debating a crackdown on panhandling in the streets.
Both Broward and Palm Beach counties will send out volunteers this month to get their first homeless count in two years. They will search parks, shelters, soup kitchens, labor camps, libraries and bus terminals in a 24-hour period.
Social service advocates expect to find more than the 5,300 people who were counted two years ago.
