Tent Cities
Just beyond the glitz and bright lights of the casinos in Reno, Nevada, another stark reality exists. What started with a few tents down by the train track in 2008, quickly doubled and then tripled, and within weeks the number homeless people living in this tent city had swelled to over 150 people. Advocacy groups like the Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project have been reporting the rise of tent cities all over the country, from Seattle, WA to Chattanooga, TN. Currently there are about 200 organized tent cities across the U.S. that house some 5,500 people, according to National Coalition for the Homeless, and the number of homeless has been rising steadily since 2007.
