I used to dread it when people at school asked me where I live or if we could hang out at my place. I would try to give my schoolmates a general response, maybe the name of a neighborhood, but they always pressed for more. I've been homeless on and off for most of my life. I've lived in New York City shelters twice for extended periods of time. Most of the other times my mother and I bounced from house to house of friends and relatives.

One in 30 American children are homeless, according to a new state-by-state report that finds racial disparities, increasing poverty and domestic violence responsible for the historic high. According to the report released on Monday by the National Center on Family Homelessness, child homelessness increased in 31 states and the District of Columbia. Nearly 2.5 million children experienced homelessness in the US in 2013, an 8% rise nationally from 2012.

Following the sequestration funding cuts in 2013, most state and local housing agencies had no choice but to sharply reduce the number of families receiving housing vouchers. By December 2013, agencies were assisting about 70,000 fewer families than they had a year earlier, and the cuts continued to deepen during the first half of 2014: by June, agencies were assisting approximately 100,000 fewer families.