Catherine Komp recently wrote an article about homeless kids. She says:
Described as America’s “dirty little secret” by social-service providers, an estimated one million young people experience homelessness each year. Many are unaccompanied teenagers, sleeping in parks, abandoned buildings or “couch surfing” at friends’ houses. Others are younger children, often in the care of a single parent, who double-up in relatives’ homes or in crowded shelters. The even-less fortunate live in cars, tents and under freeway overpasses.
Children and families are the fastest growing segments of the homeless population, according to advocates, who say this serious social problem driven by poverty and a scarcity of affordable housing is not widely recognized by the public.
Groups that work with this population say some end up on the streets to escape physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Others might be asked to leave home by an impoverished family to reduce the strain on younger children.
Once on the street, young people of all sexual orientations face challenges beyond finding enough to eat and a place to sleep. NPHY’s director of community relations, Larry Lovelett, said they contend with police, thieves and sexual predators.
How can we continue to let these rates rise?! Unfortunately, the majority of homeless people, especially younger homeless people and homeless families, suffer silently and hidden from public view.
Nonetheless, we know they suffer. We see the staggering rates of homelessness. Let us put an end to his preventable problem.
These young people have as much potential as anyone else. If our society merely gave them the environment to use the potential, rather than leave them stranded in homelessness, these children could grow into productive and healthy members of society.
Reducing homelessness and helping these children achieve their potential benefits all of us.
To solve the problem, we need to enact more than temporary fixes. We can permanently fix the problem by providing education and perhaps job-placement services in addition to food, clothes, and shelter. The homeless person immediately needs food, clothing, and shelter to survive in the short-term. However, food, clothes, and shelter won’t solve the problem alone, because they don’t enable the homeless person to permanently escape homeless and poverty. The homeless person also needs education and/or job-placement services to give the homeless person the ability to support him or herself and permanently escape homeless and poverty.
In my opinion, society can most effectively provide the aforementioned services through private and non-governmental methods, namely with student loans and business loans – assuming we include food, clothing, and shelter with tuition costs.
What do you think?