It's a lagging economic indicator of the harshest kind. Even as the recession begins to wane, a growing suburban homeless population may be facing a long, cold winter, with little or no room at local emergency shelters.
Crowded and underfunded, suburban shelters turned away an increasing number of homeless last year and already have done it this year even though temperatures have been above normal since October, the traditional start of shelter season.
"We're bracing ourselves, we're preparing ourselves for it to be worse," said Cathryn Perfetti, director of McHenry County PADS in Woodstock, which last winter saw twice as many homeless people as beds at some of its nine shelter sites.
With foreclosures and job losses hitting even the most affluent communities, some of the people seeking shelter are far from street savvy and having to cut them loose is particularly painful for shelter personnel.
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