Posted on August 24, 2016 by Evan Horowitz in The Boston Globe The Boston Globe, By Evan Horowitz Fill in the blank. When the economy collapses, the number of homeless Americans goes ___. While you might expect the answer to be “up,” during the recession of 2007-2009 the number of homeless people in America dropped slightly. Compare homelessness across states and you find another upside-down relationship. Rich states — not poor ones — have the largest homeless populations.