I went looking for figures on how many Americans are currently living in tent cities. If such a figure exists, it doesn't appear to be readily available to the public. There are tallies of a handful of these "communities" online, but I suspect there are many more that are not reported.
Just as FEMA trailers offered short-term housing for some victims of hurricane Katrina, these tent cities are set up to be "temporary" facilities before more permanent solutions are provided by the government. In one of these videos, a man has been living in a tent for over a year. Another video reports 350 people share 6 port-o-potties and 2 water taps -- similar to third world living conditions.
As home foreclosure and unemployment skyrocket, the number of Americans living in tent cities continues to grow. When will it end?
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
News article: http://www.educationnews.org/mobile/political/political_releases/76201.html
Videos: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread558354/pg1
News article and 2 revealing videos. St. Pete police destroy tents to drive homeless out: http://www.dailymarkets.com/economy/2010/11/19/tent-cities-pop-up-everywhere-in-the-u-s-as-homelessness-skyrockets/
Pacific Coast Report: http://nationalhomeless.org/publications/Tent%20Cities%20Report%20FINAL%203-4-10.pdf