Find out how many kids are Homeless in your State

Independence and Freedom (4.00 / 13)

are not possible without shelter. A childhood is a lot less likely to be in pursuit of health and happiness when there is no home.

The life rafts are deflating fast. Help if you can.

Posted also at Naranjastan where it is being pretty much ignored. :-D

Creativity takes courage ~ Henri Matisse

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by: cosmic debris @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 11:59:23 AM CDT

Definition of "homeless children" (4.00 / 9)

   Homeless:5 Children who are:
   • 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.

as defined by Subtitle B of Title VII of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (Title X, Part C, of the No Child Left Behind Act)

Creativity takes courage ~ Henri Matisse

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by: cosmic debris @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 12:17:35 PM CDT

Thank you for this. (4.00 / 6)

Well done diary overall, and the resources at the end are helpful.  My only question is the map, which shows not absolute numbers but rankings.  Is there a similar map that shows the numbers of homeless children instead?  I think it's instructive to see where patterns of homelessness are (no surprise that the South leads the way), but I'd also like to see what it looks like in terms of raw data.

Thanks again!

Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce

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by: pico @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 13:38:04 PM CDT

Here's a number that hit me pretty hard: (4.00 / 6)

the three states that my nuclear family is spread across are ranked 48, 49, and 50 in terms of extent of child homelessness.  Um, wow.

Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce

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by: pico @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 13:40:09 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I did find such a map (4.00 / 5)

for general homelessness, not children specific. Thanks for the compliments and thanks for asking, pico. The map below came from the the National Alliance to End Homelessness The stats used in the map are from 2007 and would be much worse now.

Here is another version of the 2007 map with more statistics

and here is another interactive 2009 Media Map, which shows more recent incidences and trends based on news stories.  

Creativity takes courage ~ Henri Matisse

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by: cosmic debris @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 13:56:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Damn. (4.00 / 5)

The homeless child population of California alone is larger than the entire population of Chattanooga, or Jackson MS, or Providence RI... etc.  Wow.

Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce

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by: pico @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 15:08:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yeah, CA is really bad (4.00 / 4)

More than 292,624 California children experience homelessness each year according to the data collected by the McKinney-Vento Educational Programs.1 California ranks 49th in the number of homeless children and 48th in the percentage of children who are homeless.1 Of the 2,200,000 children living in poverty in California, thirteen out of every one hundred (13% ) are homeless. link

Der Gropernator should not have hasta la vista'd, his job should have been terminated. Given the current budget crisis, things could get dramatically worse.  

Creativity takes courage ~ Henri Matisse

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by: cosmic debris @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 15:32:19 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Wait, how can it be 49th? (4.00 / 3)

Percentage I understand, but in raw numbers the graph above suggests it's not only dead last, but dead last by a landslide: nearly 3x as many as the next worst state.

Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce

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by: pico @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 16:59:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Oh nevermind - that's total homelessness. (4.00 / 3)

Although with numbers like that, it's a surprise that California's doing better with children than with adults.  

Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce

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by: pico @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 17:00:42 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I hesitate to point this out, (4.00 / 5)

but there may be a few reasons for California's terrible stats.

First, if you look at the map again, homelessness gets generally worse the further south you go across the board.  No surprise there.  If I were homeless or facing the loss of my home, and I lived in, say, North Dakota, I'd definitely head for a state where it's possible to survive without freezing to death.  Especially if I had children.

Second, California does have fairly large immigrant and transient populations.  The children of migrant agricultural workers, for example, must be considered homeless.

Third, housing in California is expensive compared to many other states, making it much easier to become or stay homeless.

These are not excuses, homeless children is never excusable, but they may be partial explanations.  

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by: one hand clapping @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 02:39:14 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thank you for this!!! (4.00 / 5)

A situation that was already abhorrent is now getting worse as a result of the state budget crises.

I'm glad you mentioned the stimulus money that is being used to deal with some of this. In my work I'm daily coming across ways in social services and education that those dollars are filling holes. Its just frustrating to see the Republican Governor of our state digging yet more with his "no taxes" mantra.

Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it. Mahatma Gandhi

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by: NLinStPaul @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 13:55:11 PM CDT

Thank you for this, cosmic debris! (4.00 / 2)

I have been thinking so much of this issue -- where do all the jobless go, after losing their homes, and everything they had?  It's something that nags at me and, it seems, little discussed by the media.  I had an instinctive feeling it was bad, but this is worse than I even dreamed, particularly, the plight of our children -- heartbreaking statistics.  All this, while continuing ill-begotten, illegal wars to the tune of millions each month, not counting the bases we maintain the world over, or the allocations for defense "equipment" spending.  There is a cliche or expression something to the effect, "when a nation no longer reveres its children, there is something fundamentally wrong in that nation's structure!  That's the idea, though not verbatim.

Unfortunately, and I've said this many times, to me, this is the "aftermath" of the past eight years plus* and deliberate effort to marginalize the so-called "middle-class" to a "poor-class" status -- I think they did a heckuva' job.

This information you have presented needs to get wider and wider circulation -- even become a "meme" as part of our efforts to end the wars!

One, among the many, of the most deplorable situations that have been wrought upon this country.  Very tragic!

*though, these efforts were commenced long before that

Say "YES" to Generation We  Go there, read the Petition and sign, if you agree!   Say "YES" to GENERAL STRIKE

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by: tahoebasha3 @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 19:05:30 PM CDT

Thanks Tahoe. I hope the issue does get more attention, (4.00 / 2)

that people will look into their local situation. I wish that people would pay as much attention to the people who are slipping through the cracks in their communities as they do Sarah Palin and Michael Jackson and their cats.  

Around here people who have lost their homes and can't afford to leave live in motels, then their cars, then in tents in parks, then in cardboard shacks in arroyos near bridges and finally move into shelters when it gets too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter.

There are trains that go through town that bring people in from all over in the wintertime, snowbirds of a different kind. Thankfully, my city has up till now provided quite a bit in the way of social services. That is changing now. The services are being slashed. I'm afraid people will start dying from exposure as have so many immigrants who have tried to cross the border in the summer. I fear a real humanitarian crisis in the SW, not to mention escalation in crime and violence.

The rapid increase in numbers of homeless is what is shocking to me, nearly double in one year. Some say this economic crash is only halfway to the worst of it. Does that mean there will be another 25,000 homeless kids in my area? 50,000? Will California have a million?

Yes, so let's keep our eyes open and do what we can.  

Creativity takes courage ~ Henri Matisse

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by: cosmic debris @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 19:44:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thank you, cosmic debris! (4.00 / 2)

But is this not all too reminiscent of "Katrina?"  There is little or no CARE for the PEOPLE!  This is why I believe it has ALL been deliberate.  I read somewhere a couple of years ago that the Bilderbergs believe that we are "overpopulated" and, therefore, we have to find a means of "diminishing" the population.   While it is true that we are "overpopulated" -- it is also true that we have enough to "go around."  Of course, this depends on "distribution."  And, sadly, "corporatists" can pick and choose as to distribution.  

The "rapid increase" in numbers of homeless you say, "what is shocking to me" -- well, is it really shocking?  I mean, each time, over the years, you have heard that this company, that company is laying off 5,000 workers, even 10,000 workers -- no, the "rapid increase" does not surprise me --- I do confess, the numbers did.    

Say "YES" to Generation We  Go there, read the Petition and sign, if you agree!   Say "YES" to GENERAL STRIKE

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by: tahoebasha3 @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 20:05:07 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I think the numbers are understated (4.00 / 3)

In my Ventura, California neighborhood - an area of about 9 blocks - there are about 70 homeless in the nearby park on any given day. There is a camp at the end of my street the police occasionally bulldoze (thankfully they haven't done that since 2004), every overpass has signs of someone camping there at night, there are camps up and down the riverbed, there are new folks with "please help" signs on the corners almost daily. I think California may already be over 1 million homeless, so many of them do their best not to be counted fearing they will be locked up by the people doing the counting.

This is a problem that's only going to get worse. What are the vets going to do when they return from Iraq and Afghanistan to no jobs? Like the VA has the funding to help? Many of the homeless in my 'hood are Viet Nam vets, they should have received assistance long ago.

A transitional center is going in a block from my house, converting a run-down motel to help the area homeless. I hope it helps, but I don't know where they plan to transition them to, ain't no jobs around here. But I'm going by next week to see what I can do to help (I ply a couple trades that may be useful).

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by: CatfishBlues @ Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 22:09:55 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yes, our returning soldiers are beset with no jobs! Insult to injury! (4.00 / 2)

Out of Iraq's frying pan, into an economic fire

Mike Brunker
Projects Team editor

updated 6:55 a.m. CT, Fri., July. 3, 2009

EDINBURGH, Ind.- The return of the Elkhart-based Indiana National Guard's 1538th Transportation Company from Iraq this week was a joyous occasion. About 400 friends and family members lustily cheered and applauded the unit's 182 citizen-soldiers as they marched in formation into a hangar at Stout Field in Indianapolis.

The gathering might have been even more boisterous were it not for the realization that these Guardsmen are coming home to face a new enemy - a swooning economy that has landed like a KO'd heavyweight on the canvas of their home towns.

The 1538th sustained no casualties during its almost 10 months in Iraq ferrying supplies and providing security for U.S. military convoys, perhaps in part by obeying its unofficial motto, "Drive it like you stole it." But the same can't be said for the jobs its members left behind.

Forty-six soldiers - fully 25 percent of the company - have no work awaiting them, including many whose jobs vanished while they were heeding their nation's call. . . .

That's just one accounting!

Say "YES" to Generation We  Go there, read the Petition and sign, if you agree!   Say "YES" to GENERAL STRIKE

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by: tahoebasha3 @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 12:43:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]