Santa Monica, UNITED STATES
To match Feature USA-HOMELESS/
Dylan Burger, 8, (R) dances to a video game at the Boys & Girls Club in Santa Monica, California December 16, 2011. Dylan's parents Elizabeth, 43, and Tracy, 45, lost their apartment in 2009 after both losing their jobs with combined earnings of $100,000 a year. They were forced to sell most of their possessions and live in a motel before moving into Elizabeth's mother's garage in March 2011. 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. Picture taken December 16, 2011.To match Feature USA-HOMELESS/ REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT)