"From Seattle to Athens, Georgia, homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.

"Nearly 61% of state-run organisations in the sector have seen a rise in homelessness since the economic downturn first started in 2007, a report says.

"The study, by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with repossessions mounting, fuel and food prices rising and the job market tightening.

"One of the so-called "tent cities" is based by the side of the railway tracks in the city of Reno, populated by people who lost their jobs to the ailing US economy, or newcomers who had moved there for work and discovered no-one was hiring.

"Out of a dozen people interviewed in the tent city, six had come to Reno from California or elsewhere over the last year, hoping for casino jobs.

"I figured this would be a great place for a job," said Max Perez, a 19-year-old from Iowa.

"He could not find one and ended up taking showers at the men's shelter and sleeping in a tent barely big enough to cover his body.

"The relatively posh California city of Santa Barbara has given over a car park to people who sleep in cars and vans.

"The city of Fresno, California, is trying to manage several growing tent cities, including an encampment where people have made shelters out of scrap wood.

"In Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, homeless groups have paired with non-profit or faith-based groups to manage tent cities as outdoor shelters.

"Other cities where tent cities have either appeared or expanded include Chattanooga, Tennessee, San Diego, and Columbus, Ohio.

" 'It's clear that poverty and homelessness have increased,' said NCH acting executive director Michael Stoops.

" 'The economy is in chaos, we're in an unofficial recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future.'

And do read the entire piece at DownWithTyranny.  Here are some other highlights: "That brings us to what Jeffrey Feldman calls the "greatest shell game in history."

"First, you fleece new home buyers with the promise of riches-- but you do it in their mortgage application instead of a late night infomercial (brilliant). Then, you squeeze out some crocodile tears and Bush cuts you a check right out of America's retirement accounts (ca-ching). We should send Wall Street a letter of congratulations just for inventing this scam, let alone pulling it off. Mail your keys to the bank, your checkbook to the oval office, grab your chimney brush, and start singing.

"Meanwhile, to 'solve' the problem their cronies created, Treasury comes up with their own version of the PATRIOT ACT. It's a war on liquidity we're fighting, people! So the President must seize unfettered spending power before terror undermines our free markets. Invading the markets with the strongest money in the world is the only way to save small town values. Anyone who whines about 'oversight' must hate freedom. Somebody tell Barack Obama and the rest of the socialist elite that this is not a time for partisanship.

"William Greider in The Nation explains how the swindlers on Wall Street and their handmaidens among the Republican Party and the Blue Dogs are planning to turn their lemons into lemonade-- at our expense.

"And in Congress, I'd turn to people who fancy themselves representatives of the People, like Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) rather than representatives of Big Money like John McCain, James Inhofe, John Cornyn, Max Baucus, Mary Landrieu, Susan Collins, Norm Coleman, Gordon Smith and Ted Stevens. Give Bernie the check and throw Paulsen in prison.

"Paulsen shouldn't be given a $700 billion blank check and his buddies and cronies on Wall Street shouldn't be given golden parachutes. They should be given hangmen's nooses... or at least long prison terms...

"And yet... and yet... our congressmen, in terror, are expected to hand the keys to the car over to Hank Paulson? The Goldman Sachs hack who has missed every single warning sign leading up to this crisis? And who now demands that U.S. taxpayers assume the responsibility for tens of millions of dollars in golden parachutes for the very executives/political donors whose greed, arrogance and venality caused this crisis-- and the responsibility to shore up foreign banks as well!"