Many cities continue to have difficulty providing food and shelter to homeless residents, according to the Washington-based U.S. Conference of Mayors’ (USCM) 2007 Hunger and Homelessness Survey released Monday. More than half of the 23 cities that responded to the survey said they had to turn away people seeking assistance some or all of the time.

This year’s survey, available at www.usmayors.org, showed that more than 80 percent of the respondents had seen an increase in requests for emergency food assistance in the past year, and a majority of the cities expect the need for food assistance to increase in 2008. A lack of affordable housing was cited as a major cause of both homelessness and hunger. “Although 87 percent of our nation’s wealth is generated in our nation’s cities, hunger and homelessness persists in most of our country’s cities and urban centers,” USCM President and Trenton, N.J., Mayor Douglas Palmer says. “At a time when our nation is focused on the presidential campaign, we must ensure that the needs of those most in need in America are at the top of the candidates’ policy agendas.”

USCM and Gaithersburg, Md.-based food provider Sodexho have performed the survey for the past 21 years. New features of this year’s survey include individual profiles of hunger and homelessness for cities that participated in the survey, as well as contact information for service providers in those cities.