hmmm, they might have been off on the homeless numbers, but according to the census report, there were 35.9 million people in poverty in 2003. thats a great big hunk of people.
and the definiton of poverty is presented by this link
http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/t.../thresh03.html
because that graph says in one page what i would spend a long time trying to type.
and if im not mistaken, and i may be, the threshold of poverty has been generally lowered (adjusted for inflation) which means its actually harder and harder to get labeled as impoverished.