WASHINGTON --- The United States experienced a dramatic 12% increase in homelessness to its highest reported level as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, federal officials said Friday. About 653,000 people were homeless, the most since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. The total in the January count represents an increase of about 70,650 from a year earlier. READ:The poor, the hungry, and the homeless: A global paradigm for development assistance The latest estimate indicates that people becoming homeless for the first time were behind much of ...Keep on reading: US homelessness up 12% to highest reported level as rents soar, COVID aid lapses