As millions of Americans gather in their homes for the holidays , there will be those who will congregate in a different kind of home . An abode common to other parts of the world now proliferates across America : Tent cities . The total number of homeless people residing in tents and makeshift homes is unknown . Many of these communities are small and hidden from public view , while others claim hundreds of residents and are sprinkled through major urban areas . Some , like those tucked under roadways , are temporary and relocate frequently . Their conditions are vile , unsanitary and fail to provide refuge from storms and winds . Then there are communities , such as Dignity Village in Portland , Oregon , that have a more sustained presence . The 13-year-old `` ecovillage '' set up by homeless people is hygienic and self-sufficient . Preliminary findings by The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty show that tent cities have been documented in almost every state , and they 're growing . A report released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors , for example , found that homelessness and hunger rates are rising , culminating in 47 million Americans living below the poverty line . A fledgling economic recovery , high unemployment and contracting government services are largely to blame . So is the paucity -- or paradox -- of affordable housing . While homelessness is increasing , more than 10 % of homes in America are empty . Emergency services , meanwhile , are n't filling the void . Homeless families and single adults are routinely turned away by shelter homes because of lack of bed space . Tent cities are an organic , last resort response to crushing economic circumstances . Yet , rather than ameliorating the conditions that give rise to these communities , many states and municipalities are cracking down . While some encampments are legally sanctioned or permitted to operate on church grounds , officials routinely invoke prohibitions against public camping and sleeping to disband these encampments , leaving tenants languishing out in the cold . Epithets suggesting that homeless people are mentally ill , lazy , criminal , violent or some combination thereof only fuels the fire . These accusations are largely urban myth . Most homeless people do not suffer from mental illness or drug abuse . Many homeless people have jobs but simply ca n't afford housing . Some tent cities , for example , cater to local economies , and many of their residents are gainfully employed . Homeless people also tend to be the victims of countless hate crimes , even though they are a protected class under numerous state hate crime statutes . Lost in this shameful rhetoric is the fact that the right to housing is a bedrock of international law and protected by U.S. law . Some courts have held that tearing down camps when no alternative is available amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and a deprivation of property without due process of law . That we can even stroll through our cities while some of the residents languish in squalor is hard to believe . A few decades ago , tent cities would have been unimaginable . In 1964 , a group of researchers famously roamed the parks of New York City and found only one homeless man . Fifty years later , homelessness in New York City has reached a record high . The same can be said for much of America : Homelessness has doubled since the 1980s . Those who declare that we 're close to ending poverty just need to look around and see the victims of the Great Recession . Tent cities are an ugly reminder of America 's growing income inequalities . Yet , in the absence of meaningful economic reform , these self-reliant communities must not be dismantled . Nor should they be forgotten . For in sanctioning them , we risk capitulating to the epidemic of poverty and shifting our public policy from eliminating poverty to accommodating it . This is already happening in other parts of the world . In Mumbai , India , for example , slums freckle the landscape like skyscrapers . But sprouting from the dilapidation are antennas and electrical wires . Some of the housing units have electricity , cable programming and mail delivery . And so the discussion no longer concerns extricating human beings from the slums but making the slums more habitable . We must not succumb to America 's great divide . Doing so is n't just a repudiation of the downtrodden ; it 's a stain on our national consciousness .
Arjun Sethi : As Americans go home for the holidays , some homeless go to tent cities . Sethi : Tent cities , either makeshift or more permanent , proliferate across America . He says instead of helping the homeless , states are cracking down on these communities . NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. Tent cities are a reminder of America 's growing income inequalities .