An independent UN expert has warned that the US is an increasingly expensive place to find housing, leaving many more people homeless at a time when the financial crisis is hitting hard across the country. "Millions of people in the US are spending high percentages of their income to make their monthly rent and mortgage payment, face foreclosure or eviction, and live in overcrowded and substandard conditions," said Raquel Rolnik, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing. "The number of homeless continues to rise with increasing numbers of working families and individuals finding themselves on the streets." Rolnik traveled to the cities of Washington DC, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, as part of an 18-day fact-finding mission. (UN News Service)