Laura Rios, 45, (2nd L) waits for the train next to her four young children Ronaldo (L), Sebastian (3rd L), Aslee (2an R) and Jordey (obscured by Aslee) in a train station in New York, December 22, 2011. Rios has spent the past year living in a small two bedroom homeless shelter in New York, and are among 95 families living in the two storey brick building home with some 300 children. In a report issued earlier this month, the National Center on Family Homelessness, based in Needham, Massachusetts, said 1.6 million children were living on the streets of the United States last year or in shelters, motels and doubled-up with other families. That marked a 38 percent jump in child homelessness since 2007 and Ellen Bassuk, the center's president, attributes the increase to fallout from the U.S. recession and a surge in the number of extremely poor households headed by women. To match Feature USA-HOMELESS/ REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES - Tags: SOCIETY POVERTY TRANSPORT)