SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Caridad Colon had never known what it was like to be hungry, homeless or unemployed in her 47 years living in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

She was financially independent for nearly three decades, first working as a cashier in a Chinese restaurant and later as a secretary for a global transportation business after three years' worth of university studies.

But her company recently joined the scores of businesses that have closed as Puerto Rico struggles to emerge from a six-year recession. Colon lost her job, and eventually her home.

"I have always been a person who has worked my whole life," she said. "It's very frustrating. You feel this horrible helplessness ... you start to think, how did I reach this point?"

Puerto Rico's homeless population has risen sharply in the past two years amid an ongoing economic crisis that includes a nearly 14 percent unemployment rate, higher than any U.S. state. Officials say they expect the problem will only grow worse.

More than 1,650 homeless people were estimated to be living just in the less-populated half of the U.S. territory's this year, up from 980 two years ago, according to the nonprofit Puerto Rico Pro Homeless Coalition of Coalitions. Officials say they are finding a similar increase in the more-populated San Juan metropolitan area, though that report is still being completed.

"This is the most dramatic number we've seen," said executive director Francisco Rodriguez.

Across the island of 3.7 million people, homeless people can be seen sleeping on park benches, under bridges or in doorways. Many are addicted to drugs, and it is common to see them begging at stoplights in and around San Juan.

Contributing to the problem is the island's home foreclosure rate, which rose again this fiscal year to more than 13,600 cases, according to the Courts Administration. There were more than 13,400 cases the previous fiscal year, compared to about 7,300 cases in fiscal year 2003.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico's median household income has dropped in recent years while its poverty rate has inched up to nearly 47 percent. That's compared with Mississippi, the poorest state in the U.S. where nearly 23 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Rodriguez said that nearly 80 percent of previous cases involving homeless people were tied to drugs, but that financial and family problems now play a bigger part. "We're seeing more women on the street," he said.

Colon said she lived off her limited savings and then sold her microwave oven, living room set and other items before she was forced to move out of her rented apartment.

Having no parents, grandparents, children or a significant other, Colon found herself on the street.

She spent one night as a homeless person, choosing to go to a 24-hour Wal-Mart in the municipality of Bayamon, just south of San Juan.

"It was the only solution, the only place where I would feel somewhat safe," she said.

She arrived around 1 a.m. and left in the morning after having spent several hours walking around the store.

"I pretended I was shopping," Colon said. "It was very hard. You ask yourself, 'How many hours are left? I want to sleep.'"

That morning, she spent what little savings remained on renting a bedroom from the manager of a San Juan apartment complex that, unknown to her, was nicknamed "Crackville" for the proliferation of crack cocaine. She shares a bathroom with two heroin addicts and has learned to listen for strangers outside the door before leaving the apartment. "I am terrified of my neighbors," she said. "I sprint up and down those stairs."