On November 20, 2008, the Delaware Coast Press ran a story about charities feeling a pinch. The story reported that Crisis House Shelter in Georgetown, the only emergency housing facility in Sussex County, turns away 20 to 30 people each night because it only has 20 beds.

"The faces of the homeless have changed. We used to see mostly drug addicts and alcoholics ... people not willing to work with the system," social worker Marla DiBattista said. "Now, we see entire families coming though our door -- some just women and children -- and we also have the average Joes who work everyday, but because of certain circumstances, lost their home."

On January 29, 2006, a story in the News Journal reported that advocates for the homeless report a "50 percent increase in the number of people this year seeking food and shelter from local programs."

"This was not an incremental increase," said the Rev. Tom Laymon, chief executive officer of Wilmington's Sunday Breakfast Mission. "It was a sudden jump. It's really baffling to me." What is most puzzling, Laymon said, is that many of the people using Delaware's homeless programs today don't fit the traditional stereotype.

"Something has changed. We've reached some kind of tipping point," said Bill Perkins, executive director of Friendship House, a Wilmington-based homeless program.

Advocates say they are seeing more families living in shelters, on the streets and in doubled-up housing.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors and many advocates for the homeless have urged the federal government to adopt the Education Department's definition. Using that definition, it is possible to see a hard-and-fast increase in the number of homeless children in Delaware, Miro said. In 2004, for example, her program counted 888 homeless children in Delaware. In 2005, that number jumped to 1,342. This year's figures are about the same as last year's, she said.

On November 26, 2007, the Cape Gazette in Delaware did a story on homeless students. In three to four months in the 2007-08 school year, there were 56 homeless students in the Cape Henlopen School District, said Mike Kelley, supervisor of curriculum and instruction, compared to 46 homeless students in the district for all of the 2006-07 school year.

School social worker Heidi Quillen said that there have been as many as 12 homeless students at Richard A. Shields Elementary School in Lewes this school year. "This is by far the most that I am aware of," she said. Quillen has been at the school since 1995.

Quillen said there are two factors that are common with every one of the homeless families. The parents are working, or have worked and had their hours cut back, and all are homeless because of the lack of affordable housing.

"They have low-paying jobs and when their hours get cut it only takes one bad month and they lose their housing," she said.

"Each situation is different but the real common denominator is that housing in the area is not affordable for those with very low incomes," she said.

On January 29, 2008, the Cape Gazette reported that a recent state foreclosure task force found that the number of foreclosures in Delaware increased 90 percent over the same period last year and the number of those who are seriously delinquent in payments (90 days behind) jumped 57 percent from 2006 to 2007.

On December 9, 2008, the Delaware News Journal reported that a growing number of people in Delaware who have been squeezed by rising rents and declining wages over the past several years, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Census data shows that:

•Median monthly rents, meaning half of renters pay more and half pay less, rose by 13 percent to 14 percent since 2000.

•Median household incomes dropped by 12 percent to 18 percent during the same period.

•A third to more than half of renters spend at least 35 percent of their income on rent, even though housing and financial experts say that figure should not exceed 30 percent.

Many more families are living in motels, homeless shelters or even their cars because they can no longer afford their rent, said Barbara Reed, director of housing and financial management for West End Neighborhood, which offers housing assistance to low-income families.