( – promoted by buhdydharma )
On this 233rd birthday weekend many of America’s youngest aren’t doing so well. One of the effects of the bursting economic bubbles, like so many firework chrysanthemums across the sky, is that children are increasingly being exposed to the worst this nation has to offer. The job losses, foreclosures, increased costs and decreased wages are putting kids out onto the streets. In my State of Arizona the number of school aged children now homeless has passed 25,000. That is an 18% increase over the last year. Not having shelter from the intense summer heat of the desert can be quite deadly, quite quickly.
According to this March 2009 report on national child homelessness, America’s Youngest Outcasts: State Report Card on Child Homelessness Arizona ranks 36th overall with a risk ranking of 45th. In numbers, this means “of the 933,000 children living in poverty in Arizona, one out of every twenty-five (4% ) are homeless.”
Flip below to find out about how many kids are homeless in your state and what you can do about it.
This photograph shows the ranks by color of the state of child homelessness across the United States. An interactive version of this map will provide the data relevant to your own state here. Look up your city stats here.
The National Center on Family Homelessness currently estimates that as many as one in 50 U.S. children (1.5 million) are homeless or “precariously housed” in temporary quarters such as motels and shelters. As home foreclosures and job layoffs continue, the number of at-risk children will likely rise. source
Again, in the last year Arizona,
had the nation’s seventh-largest homeless-student population. Since then, unemployment rose, foreclosures climbed and 4,000 more students statewide became homeless.Statistics show that about two-thirds of the state’s homeless students live in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
To help give homeless students a minimum level of stability, districts and charter schools are racing to meet a Friday deadline to apply for a federal stimulus grant.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided Arizona $1.9 million to give homeless children as young as preschool age equal access to free public education.
So far, 25 of the 187 eligible K-12 districts and charter schools have been awarded funds. Source
Given that Arizona’s state budget remains in limbo, with all funding for k-12 veto’d by the Governor until the Republican dominated Legislature can be strongarmed into giving a shit, things are pretty darn scary here in the land of saguaros.
Many other States are in the same bad shape. The life rafts are deflating for those who need them most. Please take the time to look up the stats on the levels of child homelessness in your States, Counties and Cities. If you do it now, post what you find in the comments.
Soon, next week, this month, if you can, do what you can to help out. Start by knowing the extent of the problem and by following the trend. Find out what resources are being allocated and what resources are being diminished or cut off. This kind of knowledge empowers.
Resources:
Poverty in the United States, US Census Bureau
Hunger and Homelessless Survey, Dec 2007 Status Report on Homelessness and Hunger in American Cities
National Center on Family Homelessness
Department of Health & Human Services Homeless Pages
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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. 😀
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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)
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!
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.
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