Child Homelessness on the rise

I feel this article ties in a bit with my last editorial about minimum wage. The United States is supposed to be one of the wealthiest nations but one in thirty children is homeless? Something there just isn’t adding up. According to Newsweek there are 2.5 million children who had “lived in shelters, on the streets, in cars, on campgrounds or doubled up with other families in tight quarters” at some point in 2013. Something needs to be done about this immediately, especially with the 8% growth of homelessness in the last year alone.

The U.S. Interagency Council had a plan come out in 2010 to help prevent homelessness among veterans by 2015 and everyone else by 2020. The program, “Opening Doors” is addressing the issues of the homeless veterans and thankfully has taken steps to help this demographic but without the same attention child homelessness has begun to rise. Most of the families are found to be just a mother with usually two children. The children are often under 6 years old.

Reports can link these rates with several causes: “high poverty rates, lack of affordable housing, racial disparities, challenges of single parenting, domestic violence and other traumatic experiences, and the lingering effects of the recession”. The effects of homelessness on children are traumatic. It changes the child’s brain in a way that can interfere with their learning, controlling their emotions, cognitive skills and social relationships. Children who have had to be homeless are more likely to drop out and consistently be homeless as adults.

Fixing this problem isn’t going to be easy but it’s obvious that the government needs to do something as soon as possible. The solution starts with affordable housing, education and employment opportunities for parents, comprehensive assessment of the family’s needs, identification, and education on prevention of homelessness. As well as parenting support and more research to identify “evidence-based programs and services.” It is heart breaking and inexcusable that 1 and 30 children in one of the greatest nations is homeless. It is apparent that not enough is being done about this tragic situation and that we must act soon with the rates rising as they are.

Review of "Border...."

I agree with our class mate Marc. He states that the "government needs to be more seriously addressed towards is what we call the "border"." I think he is right, he points out that Mexico has turned into a dangerous place where not even the police can be trusted. I think we can all agree that a vacation in a place with such a presence of the drug cartel doesn’t sound like a nice way to spend the summer. How ever if the point of the border is to keep out the “bad guys” and keep immigration under control we need to think again. The border is a complete joke! Who thinks that an incomplete 11 foot wall is a good border system? Not some one with a 12 foot ladder or a "coyote" that for a fee will smuggle you across the border. Marc talks about the fact that "more than 47,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the border". I don't know if it’s more heart breaking that these children are wandering over here all by themselves or that things are so bad in Mexico that they feel the danger of crossing the border alone is worth it. 

We spend a lot of time worrying about things overseas, which within reason is good, but we don't spend much time worrying about our own issues. I completely agree with Marc and I think especially as some one that lives so close to the border that more money, effort and thought is needed to go into it.

 I really like the lack of fluff in this commentary and how to the point it is. I think another statistic like the example with the unaccompanied children would have strengthened the point. That statistic really pulled together and strengthened the last part of the writing as well as letting the author end on a strong point.