1 in 50 U.S. children experiences homelessness

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: MSNBC

NEW YORK - One of every 50 American children experiences homelessness, according to a new report that says most states have inadequate plans to address the worsening and often-overlooked problem.

The report being released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness gives Connecticut the best ranking. Texas is at the bottom.

"These kids are the innocent victims, yet it seems somehow or other they get left out," said the center's president, Dr. Ellen Bassuk. "Why are they America's outcasts?"

The report analyzes data from 2005-2006. It estimates that 1.5 million children experienced homelessness at least once that year, and says the problem is surely worse now because of the foreclosures and job losses of the deepening recession.

"If we could freeze-frame it now, it would be bad enough," said Democratic Sen. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, who wrote a foreward to the report. "By end of this year, it will be that much worse."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29602056/

[Odin2005]

1. No one, let alone a kid, should have to experience homelessness.

The moral emptiness of the Republicans' Social Darwinism is nauseating.

[acmavm]

2. Well thank everything you hold dear that at least poor old Bernie

Madoff gets to stay in his penthouse.

And that we are giving banks and insurance companies every fucking last thing this country has.

Tell those kids to they have plenty of time to pull themselves up by the proverbial bootstraps and quit their damn whining. We have rich people to take care of.

:sarcasm:

[midnight]

3. That's precisely what I was thinking of.

Let's blame it on the Banksters, and allowing them no over site.

[adamuu]

4. If the mom leaves the home, and the mom and the kid live with grandma for

a few months, sleeping on the couch and the floor, does that count as "homeless"?

[Terran]

5. Here's the definition of homelessness used in the report:

from http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/pdf/full_report/appendix_1.pdf:

• Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (sometimes
referred to as doubled-up);
• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative accommodations;
• Living in emergency or transitional shelters;
• Abandoned in hospitals;
• Awaiting foster care placement;
• Using a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular
sleeping accommodation for human beings;
• Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings;
and
• Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.

So the answer to your question is, "yes". Note that this definition is a lot broader than that used by HUD in its homeless programs; HUD administers the only federal funds being spent on homelessness currently, under the McKinney-Vento Act.

[Stuart G]

6. It is much worse now, then when these numbers were compiled.

These numbers were 2005-2006. Imagine what they are now?

[adamuu]

10. Thanks. In that case, I was homeless at least three times, growing up. n/t

[Lost in CT]

11. Yes and so does living in a trailer apparently...

:wtf:

[mattfromnossa]

7. Why are they America's outcasts?

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

[AnneD]

8. As a School Nurse......

I use to comment jokingly about our mobile society...we need a car license plate number in lieu of a home address to track some parents down. Sadly, that joke has become a reality.

Rita, Katrina, and Ike have made our leadership more aware of this problem so we have special programs to help children stay connected.

But really-we shouldn't have these problems-they should have homes.

[OhioChick]

9. Utterly Shameful.

K&R

:kick:

[Mika]

12. Do you know the homeless children stats on the evil island of Cuba under the evil Dr Castro?

Zero.

When the Cuban economy went through an absolute meltdown after the USSR collapsed and Cuba lost its #1 trade partner, the number of people kicked out of their homes due to foreclosure = zero.

Number of schools closed down = zero (as a matter of fact school construction increased).

College scholarship reductions = zero (actually college enrollment went up and all were accommodated).

Number of people who lost their health care coverage = zero (neighborhood clinics increased and Cuba graduated more Drs per capita than any other nation).


And this went on under a so called "dictatorship". Just look at what America is going through in (not so) hard times with our "freedom".

[EFerrari]

13. And the homeless are still divided into the innocent and the guilty.

That's so sad. No wonder we don't get very far with this.

[Mika]

14. While the truly guilty parties party on our dime.

Its a dizzying spiral of destruction. American freedumb.