Report: Child homelessness up 33% in 3 years
One in 45 children in the USA — 1.6 million children — were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness.
he numbers represent a 33% increase from 2007, when there were 1.2 million homeless children, according to a report the center is releasing Tuesday.
“This is an absurdly high number,” says Ellen Bassuk, president of the center. “What we have new in 2010 is the effects of a man-made disaster caused by the economic recession. … We are seeing extreme budget cuts, foreclosures and a lack of affordable housing.”
The report paints a bleaker picture than one by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which nonetheless reported a 28% increase in homeless families, from 131,000 in 2007 to 168,000 in 2010.
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America’s Youngest Outcasts
Executive Summary
America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 updates a previous report created by The National Center on Family Homelessness titled America’s Youngest Outcasts: State Report Card on Child Homelessness. Our earlier report, based on 2006 data about the extent of the problem, was itself an update of a landmark study we issued in 1999 that provided the first comprehensive profile of America’s homeless children and families.
America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 documents the numbers of homeless children in every state, their well-being, the risk for child homelessness, and state level planning and policy activities. Using findings from numerous sources that include well-established national data sets as well as our own research, we rank the states in each of four domains and then develop a composite of these domains to rank the states from 1 (best) to 50 (worst).
America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 reports the following:
• 1.6 million American children, or one in 45 children, are homeless in a year.
• This equates to more than 30,000 children each week, and more than 4,400 each day.
• Children experiencing homelessness suffer from hunger, poor physical and emotional health, and missed educational opportunities.
• A majority of these children have limited educational proficiency in math and reading.
• Not surprisingly, the risks for child homelessness—such as extreme poverty and worst case housing needs—have worsened with the economic recession, even though the total housing capacity for families increased by more than 15,000 units in the past four years, primarily due to the federal Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP).
• Despite this bleak picture, planning and policy activities to support the growth and development of these vulnerable children remain limited. Sixteen states have done no planning related to child homelessness, and only seven states have extensive plans.
Although the majority of homeless children reside in a few states (50% reside in six states;
75% reside in 18 states), thousands and tens of thousands of children in every state go to sleep each night without a home to call their own. The numbers of homeless children in 2010 are likely undercounted since data collection procedures changed in California, reducing California’s reported total by 162,822 children in a single year, from 2009 to 2010. In the three previous data years (2007, 2008, 2009), California accounted for more than 25% of the nation’s homeless children.
America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 also analyzes trends in child homelessness since the publication of our first Report Card:
2006: A Natural Disaster Strikes—
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
• 1.5 million American children, more than one in 50 children, go to sleep without a home to call their own in 2006.
• A significant spike in child homelessness occurs due to 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a historic natural disaster. The storms lead to one of the greatest mass migrations in our nation’s history, accounting for the large numbers of homeless children in 2006.
2007: Recovery from the Hurricanes—
Child Homelessness Drops by 25%
• 1.2 million American children, or one in 63 children, are homeless in 2007.
• The numbers of children experiencing homelessness decrease dramatically as families resettle after the two hurricanes. There are more than 385,000 fewer homeless children in
2007 from 2006, a reduction of 25%.
• In the six states most impacted by Katrina and Rita, the numbers of homeless children decrease by more than 450,000 (Mississippi was an exception, with their numbers slightly increasing).
2007-2010: A Man-Made Disaster Strikes,
Pushing Child Homelessness Up by 38%
• Financial speculation sparks collapse of the housing market and financial institutions, a stock market crash, and the Great Recession. The numbers of homeless children increase by more than 448,000 from 2007 to 2010. 1.6 million (one in 45 children) are homeless in 2010—that is a 38% spike from 2007.
• Only five states report decreases in the numbers of homeless children from 2007 to 2010.
• Fallout from the man-made disaster is worse than the natural disaster, driving the national total of homeless children above the hurricane year (2006) by more than 60,000 children.
• All states are adversely affected by the economic downturn; changes in the structural determinants that contribute to the risk of homelessness vary by state.
In addition to documenting the extent of child homelessness, the well-being of homeless children, risk factors for child homelessness, and policy responses, America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 offers solutions to this national tragedy. Mindful of the severe constraints that our struggling economy is placing on institutions and individuals, we recommend affordable policy strategies in the areas of housing, child care, education, domestic violence, and employment that will help stabilize children and families who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness.
We also urge that programs addressing and preventing child and family homelessness not be cut further.
America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 is a call to action for all of us to address child homelessness before we lose another generation. Please join us in demanding a rapid response now so our next Report Card can paint a brighter picture of our nation’s most vulnerable children.
Full report below…
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4closureFraud.org
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A few years ago, I used adverse posession in the state of Florida to put homeless families in the homes posessed. The homes that I went after were blighted homes that people left behind and the city deemed them abandoned. The new york times did a story on what I did. I also got arrested and charged with scheme to defraud which had nothing at all to do with adverse posession as it is a very old law that goes back to England. In order to get the homes in livable shape we did charged rent for many of the homes in order to make a living and to pay off the large water bills, and to replace missing appliances, or to fix up air conditioners etc… My plan was to use adverse posession to provide jobs to people who would take over these empty abandoned homes that are in every neighborhood in the country. The banks are robbing the American people and homelessness will continue to rise until something is done about it. If their is an organization out their that is willing to use the adverse posession law and willing to go head to head with the local government to use the empty homes that the glutenous banks leave in their wake please let me know as I have some ideas on how we can end homelessness in the whole USA. Its time that the people of this great country join forces and put pressure on the government that has sided with those who oppress us. I await your responses.
Bravo Mark! Many people do not realize what is being done to our Country….The theft of our homes and property rights is by no accident or by no reckless act by homeowners or banks that put us here, this was an evil plan, and a very strategic one at that. This evil plan is about greed, but not monetary greed..This is about stealing everything from the American People under the guise of debt and terrorism….GLOBAL COMMUNISM and then what comes next will be GLOBAL TOTALITARIANISM…..How else can it be explained that there have been NO CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS OF THE BANKS OR WALL STREET TO DATE! They are ignoring our 5th amendment rights and they are taking property without the due process of law… and they are ignoring and running roughshot all over of the protections that were put in place by our founding fathers that were put there to protect us from the Government acting like a tyranny and oppressing the American People….Congress and the Senate have already passed NDAA…What more proof do we need that there are many traitors from within who are trying to usurp our Constitution by suspending our rights and the rule of law with this draconian piece of legislation?….It is up to EVERY ONE OF US, to stand up for our rights and homes and throw these politicians out America!
Yep!!! I lost my home I am raising three grand kids and have my mother of 90 years old. We are homeless and no one cares. My foreclose was fraud, in fact there were more fraud than truth in the whole process. I was not counted for homeless none of my grand kids were. So that is three more to add. I will not put my grand kids on the block like that. CPS would get all our kids and break up the families that are homeless. It is best to be humble and not be counted than put the kids threw anymore trauma .Losing our home was enough, for this family.
as staggering as this statistic is, i believe that the percentage is much higher than is being reported.
parents are afraid of their children being put into foster care if they report that they are homeless— a cruel,
double or triple whammy of pain.
our nation’s children are being punished by the greed, avarice and fraud committed by the banks and wall street.
there is a way to make this right:
1. defrauded homeowners must be paid full restitution for their losses.
2. the creation of jobs using the money that has been bailing out the banks funding the wars
3. credit for small business and individuals
4. housing vouchers for all those who are suffering (whether they were homeowners or tenants)
Lets not forget that the 1% could care less about the children of the 99%. After all we deadbeat homeowners could not pay our bills, and if the children are affected that is our fault because we should have paid our bills. This is just disgraceful that in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, our children have to suffer so the priviledged few can throw their weight around. Disgraceful!!!!
It is a terrible thing that these crooks are throwing our children away like they are expendable fodder.No child should ever be treated this way.Wake up America things aren’t going to get better for a long time.Are we going to allow a whole generation to be flushed down the toliet.This is going to have far reaching repercussions if something isn’t done right away.
This is exactly the reason for OWS! I have people ask me what OWS is about that they dont understand it. This is what it is all about. This has to be stopped.
They don,t care…they are still making money on each child that has a social security, homeless or not…go figure…
They use all of us as poker chips on their casino on Wall Street…they reap massive profits by gambling on all of us, and create credit and derivatives off of every aspect of our lives…and then they blame us when their gamble craps out, and they hand all of us the bill after they rob us…Like the movie Rat Race from a few years back…they are despicable, greedy, dirty bastards..all of them….
And they claim the CPA has to give them amnisty to protect the consumers. What a piece of *****garbage mouth coming from these advocates of the devil leeches, inhuman beings that are an albatros around our necks. This report should shut down that claim.
The homeless children have one and two parents that are homeless too. They have not just stolen from us they have stolen the wealth from our anchestors over and over again every second to third generation. We were the next crop to reap! And they have already stolen the wealth from our future generations.
Their gambling off of you starts the day that you are born, with the BIRTH CERTIFICATE NUMBER…IT IS A TRADABLE COMMODITY ON THE STOCK MARKET..THE UN DECLARED WE ARE ALL HUMAN CAPITAL, IT THINK THAT WAS IN 1975…YOU TUBE SEARCH 25 THINGS EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW…YOU MIGHT BE SHOCKED..
I CERTAINLY WAS SHOCKED..AND APPALLED…WHILE WE WERE ALL BUSY WORKING OUR ASSES OFF TO HAVE SOMETHING FOR OUR KIDS AND OUR OLD AGE…., THEY WERE PLANNING ON STEALING IT ALL FROM US..!