US Mayors Find Sharp Increase in Hunger, Family Homelessness: In the last year, U.S. cities have seen the sharpest increase in the demand for hunger assistance since 1991, an increase in family homelessness and a decrease or leveling in individual homelessness, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) report on the status of Hunger and Homelessness in 27 cities in America (listed below) that was released December 8, 2009 at a press conference at the USCM headquarters in Washington, D.C. A copy of the report and survey questionnaire can be downloaded at The Conference of Mayors website at www.usmayors.org.

Children Living in Subsidized Housing Less Likely to be Hungry: A report by Children’s HealthWatch (CHW) and Medical-Legal Partnership in Boston (MLPB) found that children whose families live in Boston’s subsidized housing are more likely to be food-secure and less likely to be underweight than children whose families are on the waiting list for a subsidized home. The report, which supplemented the Boston, data collected between June 2007 and June 2009, with national statistics, concluded that increasing a family’s income with a housing subsidy allows the family to spend that money on food, therefore decreasing the likelihood of children within the household facing food insecurity. The complete study is available at: http://www.childrenshealthwatch.org/upload/resource/RxforhungerNEW12_09.pdf