Every year more than two million children in America face a period of homelessness. Children remain the poorest age group in America, with one in six living in poverty. Children are considered poor if they live in a family with an annual income below the Federal Poverty Line of $26,200 for a family of four, which amounts to less than $2,180 a month, or $505 a week.
The definition of homeless usually includes those living in homeless shelters or temporary housing. We don’t have any homeless shelters in our area. Especially in rural areas like ours, shelter might look like domestic violence housing, staying on the couch or floor of a friend or relative, or having a temporary voucher for a motel room. And in the summer we do have people living outside or sleeping in vehicles because they have nowhere else to stay.
Families experiencing homelessness are similar to other families that are also poor. Both may struggle with incomes that are far less than they need to pay for housing. Generally a single event – a lost job or work hours, illness, conflict with family members they are staying with, an unanticipated bill, or violence within the home –causes homelessness. Statistics tell us that minorities, especially Native Americans, have higher rates of homelessness. Homeless families are most often single women with young children.
Many families in the Panhandle with young children do not live on the street but fit the broader definition of homeless. Northwest Community Action Partnership (NCAP) manages Head Start and Early Head Start for the northern Panhandle, including Box Butte County. Their 2018-19 annual report indicates that 327 children were served, and 52, or 16%, were homeless for all or part of the year. ESU 13 manages Head Start and Early Head Start for the southern Panhandle. In the 2019-20 school year 21 of the children they served were homeless, 6% of their enrollment.
None of these families are on the street or in their cars. Some are single parents who have relocated due to an emergency situation and are staying with a relative or friend. Some families have stayed in motels for short periods until they have found a job and secured housing. Some households have more than one family living together. Some are homeless due to job loss.
Children experiencing homelessness have been shown to have higher levels of emotional and behavioral problems, have increased risk of serious health problems, and are more likely to experience separations from their families.
Almost 1.4 million children enrolled in public schools experience homelessness each school year, double the number of homeless children America had at the start of the 2008 Great Recession. Problems at school are much greater than lower academic performance; they include more school mobility, repeating a grade, being expelled, or dropping out of school.
Many children and low-income families receive help from several government programs: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps), the National School Lunch Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
There are about twelve million children living in poverty in America, birth to age 18, with about two million being homeless. Mahatma Gandhi said, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” We have a long way to go to deal with poverty and our homeless population in America.