Homelessness

In Eleanor J. Baders Homeless Campus article, it talks about numerous of students that were homeless while going to school. Some of the students continued schooling because they wanted their education without letting anyone know they were homeless, they should have spoken up for help or withdraw because it was hard for them to continue on. Some even camped out in the woods or even couch surf, because there was no other place for them to go. It was even hard for them to stay clean, and when the school was empty, and no one was around some of the students went to the gym to take showers. Some slept in their cars; because that was the only place, they could sleep in. It was a hard life for these students, especially the ones who had a child to take care of. It was hard for the parent because they could not feed and clean the child nor did they have anyone to take a cause of the child.

The primary causes of homelessness can be there are a lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs. Other causes can be insufficient income when people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care and education. This means that difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities because of financial reasons. Some homeless people end up on the streets because they may be physical, psychological, sexual abuse, neglect or abandonment. A study done in 1992 found that 75 percent of street youth were victims of abuse and others were youths that left home when neither parent wanted custody of them after a divorce and some youth leave to escape parental restrictions that they consider to be too cruel. In 2000, an American study estimated that 20 percent of homeless youth had been in foster care before they moved to the streets and over 50 000 children run away from home.

The book “With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets” written by Marni Finkelstein refers to the homeless youth. This book describes the lifestyle of the teenagers with no home and explains with detail about what consist in their everyday lives in the streets of New York City. The purpose of this book is to explain to people who these kids are and to see life in their point of view. It explains the difference between street kids and the kids that live on the street. We need to understand that the kids that live on the streets have their own culture and their own way of surviving. Learning their point of view would be a great eye opening experience for everyone and to also understand their struggle. This book explains a study that was done to 50 street kids and life on the streets.

With the number of homeless students on the rise, schools encounter new educational challenges that include:

The homeless are impacted far more by everyday issues than those who are not. Often times, homeless children can be sick four times as much as middle class children and have superior rates of acute and recurring illnesses. In addition, they experience emotional and behavioral problems can hinder with learning at almost three times the rate of other children. “Homeless children between 6 and 17 years struggle with high rates of mental health problems. For example, 47% have problems

On another note, Candace Crook explains, “Although homeless children may become perpetrators of criminal activity, they may also, unfortunately, become the victims of criminal activity; this outcome results from the homeless children being forced to spend great lengths of time in public spaces” (367). Homeless children also tend to repeatedly fall victim of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Whether homeless children are the perpetuator or the victim, there is a direct correlation between a drop in homelessness and a drop in the crime rate.

Homeless children is more of a problem than people realize. Children who are homeless have a greater chance of having heath problems than the other children since they do not have access to medical and dental care. "Children who lack a stable home are vulnerable to a number of adverse outcomes" (Child). These children are more likely to repeat a school grade, be expelled from school, and even drop out of high school. Most homeless children have experienced violence and they now suffer from anxiety and depression. There are two types of homeless children. One type is called "Family Homeless" which is when a child is separated from their parents and placed into foster care or they are living with some of their family members. The other type is called "Unaccompanied Youth" which is when children are out on their own and have no one with them which includes the runaway youth. It is very hard to count the number of homeless children because their living situation changes frequently.

Homeless teenagers are a vulnerable population that faces many challenges just in terms of daily existence in addition to their overall development in the transitioning to adulthood. Current studies are reported to indicate that the primary cause of homeless among youth is "family dysfunction in the form of parental neglect, physical or sexual abuse, family substance abuse, and family violence." (Runway & Homeless Youth and Relationship Toolkit, 2009, p.1) Homeless youth are generally defined as "an unaccompanied youth ages 12 and older who are without family support and who are living in shelters, on the streets, in cares or vacant buildings and who are 'couch surfing' or living in other unstable circumstances." (Runway & Homeless Youth and Relationship Toolkit, 2009, p.1) Son (2002) writes that it is "...unknown how many homeless youth are out there. Most of them are not in the child welfare, juvenile justice, or mental health systems, making it difficult to accurately gather statistical data." (p.2)

Children that do not have homes grow up at risk for diseases that are not a threat to the general part of the nation. Illnesses such as whooping cough or tuberculosis that seem so rare in society are commonly found in homeless shelters. These children have not been given their vaccines over the years and therefore are not allowed to attend school. The homeless children that do attend school are sometimes as far behind as two grade levels. Many of the children are very hungry and tired which makes it almost impossible for them to concentrate. Other children are embarrassed to go to school because the other children know their situation and ridicule them. Sometimes a teacher might even keep away from a child that they believe to be dirty or may be sick. Most of these children are. They do not smell good because they do not take baths. They grow up being outcasts (Connolly, 2000).

Many of these students experience great difficulty in continuing their education and maintaining their grades due to their unstable living conditions. Most are hungry, don’t have a place to do homework with an internet connection, or even a place to shower. School becomes a hope and distraction for them, and most likely is their only way of escaping homelessness. Patricia Julianelle, director of state projects at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, said on a conference call with the press, “For many of these students, school is their primary safety net or their only safety net.”

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness; "families experiencing homelessness are generally similar to other housed families living in poverty" (End Homelessness, 2016). These are just some of the issues that can cause homelessness. This paper will discuss how school aged students are affected by homelessness and the available interventions that are available to those in the homeless community.

In Judy Daniels’ article entitled "Humanistic Interventions for Homeless Students: Identifying and Reducing Barriers to Their Personal Development," the author is successful in describing real-life examples of the effects of homelessness on school-aged children. She starts out with the story of Angie, a high school student who lives in a tent with her mother and two siblings. After being caught for fighting with her classmates, Angie is sent to the counselor’s office where she confesses her frustration with her current living situation.

While a portion of today’s society turns a blind eye to the subject of the criminalization of homelessness, an even larger quantity of people are not aware of the situation that is happening in every major city of America. For those living an affluent lifestyle, it can be difficult to discuss the amount of poverty and homelessness that is constantly occurring. The definition and meaning behind the absence of home is also arduous to discuss. While homelessness is commonly associated with sleeping outside or in provisional areas, this word also identifies with an absence of belonging. This absence of belonging can relate not only to a community, but also to the people that dwell there (Baumohl 3). Within the portion of those who are aware of the homelessness situation, there is a section that detests the poverty stricken persons of our society. These biased members of the American population express their antipathy in several ways. It is necessary to reveal the privileges that homeless persons have been violently stripped of, and expose and broadcast the freedom they are entitled to. Through

With the current recession and foreclosure crisis, more families are facing homelessness than ever before. This presents additional struggles for children and the schools who educate them. Since many of the students have no fixed place to stay, they could bounce from school to school providing no stability for education, or in some areas these children are transported back to their original home school sometimes causing kids to be on busses for long commutes. When children face a lack of stability in the classroom it is easier to fall behind, and teachers might only begin to see deficiencies in skills after observing work for a while it could lead a student to fall further behind every day.

Children of many ages are affected by these tremendous problems resulting from homelessness that have just become greater as time has passed. Homelessness leaves long lasting scars on these children (Crary 2). “The burden places upon these people can influence every facet of their lives; from contraception to early adulthood” (Hart-Shegos 2). All stages of life are affected by this experience of homelessness and severe problems can be caused in every stage.