Dear Future President,

I write to you about a serious situation, homelessness. There are more than 564,708 people who are homeless; a quarter of them are children. 26% of all homeless adults suffer from untreated mental illness. About 57,000 or 9% of all homeless people are veterans.

The leading cause of women homelessness is because of domestic violence. More than 90 percent of homeless women are victims of severe physical or sexual abuse, and escaping that abuse is a leading cause of their homelessness.

Over 26% of all homeless people become addicted when they are homeless. Alcohol and drugs are expensive. The money that the addicted homeless people have is going to drugs and alcohol. That most likely means that they’re not eating right.

In my state of North Dakota, there are more than 1,200 people who are homeless. Even though our state is lightly populated compared to others I feel that is a big number. In a survey they took of 29 cities in the United States, an increase of 6% of homelessness was seen.

So Mr. President please take this into consideration.