Number of Homeless Children in US at All-Time High

The number of homeless children in the U.S. is surging and has reached an all-time high, according to a new report by the National Center on Family Homelessness.

The state-by-state report, titled "America's Youngest Outcasts," says one child in every 30 is homeless. It blames the problem on the lack of affordable housing and the impact of pervasive domestic violence.

The report calculates that nearly 2.5 million children in America were homeless at some point last year.

The number is based on the Department of Education's latest count of 1.3 million homeless children in public schools, supplemented by estimates of homeless pre-school children not counted by the DOE.

The problem is especially severe in California, which has one-eighth of the U.S. population but accounts for more than one-fifth of the homeless children - that's nearly 527,000 homeless kids.