Child Homelessness at All-Time High in US
The number of homeless children in the United States has reached an all-time high, with one out of 30 children homeless, according to a state-by-state report by the National Center on Family Homelessness (NCFH).
NCFH is a part of the private, non-profit American Institutes for research.
The report, titled "America's Youngest Outcasts", calculated that almost 2.5 million children were homeless at some point in the Unites States in 2013, The Associated Press states, Al Jazeera reports.
The figure is based on the latest count by the Department of Education of 1.3 million homeless children in public schools, along with estimates of homeless pre-school children that were not taken into account by the DOE.
Carmela DeCandia, co-author of the study and director of the National Center, observed a progress made by the government with regard to the problem of homelessness among chronically homeless adults and veterans. "The same level of attention and resources has not been targeted to help families and children. As a society, we're going to pay a high price, in human and economic terms," DeCandia said, The Utah People's Post reports.
The reports further show that child homelessness surged by 8 percent nationally from 2012 to 2013. The authors warned that homelessness among children could have potentially devastating effect on children's educational, emotional and social development, as well as on their parents' health, employment prospects and parenting abilities.
The report emphasizes that the problem is more severe in California. While the state has one-eighth of the U.S. population, it also has more than one-fifth of the total 527,000 homeless children.
The possible solutions for child homelessness suggested by NCFH includes an expansion of affordable housing, education and employment opportunities for homeless parents, and specialized services for the many mothers rendered homeless due to domestic violence.
