" Homelessness and Children in USA " !!!
It’s once again time for school. Excited (and not so excited) students are heading back to the classroom with new school supplies, new clothes and maybe a new lunchbox. They’ll see old friends and make new friends and, if they can, settle down to learn information that will help them grow and succeed in life.
Homelessness and children…
But what about homeless children? They don’t have a home to go back to after school. Some are living in motels, some staying with relatives and friends, while others live at shelters and rescue missions like Joy Junction. Some are even living out of cars. Some move so often that that they have to move schools, miss class, or fail to go to school altogether.
As this article puts it, “[Homelessness] fundamentally affects how you are able to function in life. This is particularly true for students… who often come to school hungry, without enough sleep, and without having done their homework because they lack the supplies and the space necessary to do it.”
These, and other problems, are the problems that homeless school children face every day.
The Impact of Homelessness on Children
It is estimated that one in 50 children is homeless in the United States. For the 2009-2010 school year, APS estimated that 5,000 school-aged youth in Albuquerque were homeless—and that isn’t counting the fact that nearly half of all homeless children are under the age of six.
In addition to keeping children from learning the vital information they will need to escape their situation and succeed in life, homelessness causes other problems for children that can be just as debilitating.
Studies have found that children who are homeless are less healthy and have more chronic health problems than children who have homes. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, children who experience homelessness:
Are sick 4 times as often as other children. Problems include:
Four times as many respiratory infections
Twice as many ear infections
Five times the gastrointestinal problems
Four times more likely to develop asthma
Go hungry at twice the rate of other children
Have high obesity rates due to nutritional deficiencies
Have three times the rate of emotional and behavioral problems than non-homeless children
When it comes to development and behavioral problems, children who are homeless are four times more likely to show delayed development and twice as likely to have learning disabilities as children who have a home.
The stress and emotional impact of being homeless also cause learning disabilities. Academic performance is hampered by conditions like poor cognitive development. Homeless children are more likely to score poorly on math, reading, and spelling tests and to be held back a year.
With the combination of learning disabilities and emotional trauma created by homelessness, few homeless children have the means and motivation to graduate, which will only deposit them back into the cycle of poverty and homelessness. One report even estimated the number of homeless children in the US who will not graduate from high school at 1.16 million.
The best way to help these children is to spread the word. Without a community-wide effort and acknowledgement of the problem, programs to help homeless kids won’t receive funding and children won’t be able to benefit; movements for help and change won’t begin.
You can also donate to Joy Junction! We send our youngest guests to school so that they don’t miss out on learning. You can donate school supplies, backpacks and clothing, and you can donate to our Children’s Charity.
You can also donate to our Together, We Can expansion campaign. Through our expansion, we will be able to help more children and their families get back on their feet and back to a stable life.
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