Some help for anyone, like the author, who thinks with their feelings rather than their mind:
2003 - 6 = 1997
; a record 56 percent of cities having to turn people away without help from food assistance programs, up 24 percent over the previous year and the highest percentage since six years ago when 71 percent was recorded; and a record 84 percent of cities having to turn away people from homeless shelters because of lack of space, up 38 percent over 2002 and the largest percentage in seven years.
* 56% is the record, if you don't count the time when it was 71%.
* 84% is both a record, and the highest percentage in 7 years -- which suggests that this record, like the last one, is not the highest recorded.
It's worth noting, BTW, that our author deals exclusively in percentages, which saves her the trouble of giving us actual numbers, that we may properly judge whether that "38% increase" corresponds to many, or few, actual people.
Further, we don't know how many times the cities were "turning away people due to lack of space." Does the statistic mean that it could have happened only once per year, or was it measuring something more meaningful, such as "at least 50 times/year?"
There's lies, damned lies, and statistics. And experience has shown that "homeless advocates" tend to be worse than any of them.
Right... the article should have said the numbers were the worst since the Clinton administration.