Poverty and Children in America

Homelessness has been a prevalent and contentious topic since its public emergence in the 1980’s. In fact, according to the most recent estimates, on any given night in the United States, there are roughly 645,000 people residing in homeless shelters or unsheltered street locations (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2011). And based on a local study done by the Mental Health Unit at the Houston Police Department in 2011, Houston has the largest homeless population in Texas and the eighth largest in the United States. While many great efforts have been put forth to aid the homeless population in Houston, “the public health epidemiology task of quantifying and tracking child and family homelessness over time has been complicated…by increasing rates of…shortages [in] affordable housing” (Grant et al., 2013), and restrictions on temporary encampments (Loftus-Ferren, 2013). In order to successfully reduce, prevent and combat homelessness, more policies must be put in place to create sustainable, affordable housing for homeless families and to modify current laws that harm homeless individuals.

     To be homeless is to not have a home or a permanent place of residence. Nationwide, there is estimated to be 3.5 million people that are homeless, and roughly 1.35 million of them are children. It is shown that homeless rates, which are the number of sheltered beds in a city divided by the cities population, have tripled since the 1980’s (National Coalition for Homeless, 2014). Worldwide, it is estimated that 100 million children live and work on the streets. Homeless children are more at risk than anyone else, and are among the fastest growing age groups of homelessness. Single women with children represent the fastest growing group of homeless, accounting for about 40% of the people that are becoming

The image of homelessness has changed since the Great Depression, when many homeless people were elderly and white. Today a growing number of women and families, including young children, are homeless because of insufficient housing and resources (Bassuk & Rosenberg, 1988). As the number of homeless people has continued to rise over the past decade, homelessness has become a central feature of life in America.

The United States faces many social problems. One of these problems is child hunger. It has sociological origins and challenges for government and citizens alike.

The topic being addressed in this article is the changing association among marriage, work, and child poverty in the United States. There has been numerous research conducted on the importance of marriage and work and the link that it has to child poverty and the negative association that has been shown through research. However over many decades, there has been a transformation that marriage and work is no longer a negative association with child poverty. This study thoroughly examined the relationships between marriage, work, and the relative measures from 1974-2010 using 10 waves of the U.S. Census Current Populations Survey data from the Luxembourg Income Study. The influence of demographic characteristics that relate to poverty shows that marriage negative association with child poverty has declined whereas work’s negative association with child poverty has increased.

The United States is the richest nation, yet millions of Americans live below the poverty line and millions more struggle every month. The children in society today living in poverty is increasing daily. The majority of these children are from single-parent homes where sometimes parents are not working or have become disabled and therefore cannot work. Children who are raised in foster care and leave as adults do not have strong relationship ties most of the time and are at an increased risk for experiencing poverty, early parenthood and homelessness (American School Board Journal, 2007). The reason for most of the poverty in the United States is due to low family incomes.

People often think that homelessness only affects men and women but in reality homelessness also affects families “It is estimated that 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness every year. Among this group, 17 percent are single women and 30 percent are families with children” (Finfgeld-Connet, 2010, p.1). It is said that women along with their children are among the fastest growing homeless population and not only does it impact women but it also impacts their children significantly.

Homeless families compose a fraction of the homeless population as they “represent roughly a third of the homeless population in the United States (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2010), and approximately 1.5 million children—1 in 50 youngsters—are homeless each year in the United States” (p. 389). These homeless families often struggle to find permanent residency as a collective unit. There are several types of housing situations available for homeless families such as temporary housing, transitional housing settings, and shelters, yet the housing situation for homeless families often causes stress for families as stability and a secure home is always in question. “The lack of stable, consistent housing is the central, defining characteristic of families experiencing homelessness, distinguishing them and their experience(s) from those with stable housing who experience other correlated conditions (e.g., poverty)” (Kilmer, Cook, Crusto, Strater, and Haber, 2012, p. 394). Homeless families often seek different types of housing usually by first reaching out to temporary shelters in emergency situations like domestic violence that often lead to homelessness, which provide services for children and families. There are many challenges families encounter in the process of seeking permanent housing.

It was difficult to read that countless millions of federal dollars and many of our country's most successful efforts to halt the spread of childhood hunger and starvation have recently been withdrawn. And as a result, this problem of childhood hunger is not getting better but is actually getting worse. The most recent estimates compiled by the USDA in 1999 indicate that 36.2 million Americans live in food-insecure households, which means that their access to adequate and safe food is limited or uncertain. This too is very disturbing information.

Many people do not realize that hunger and malnutrition is a problem that many Americans face on a daily basis. Maybe, we are failing to realize that our country is not perfect, but if we don’t try to do anything then more and more children will die. The problem with child hunger is that the United States may not face as dramatic problems with hunger as that of other countries, but

One in every 50 American children experiences homelessness, according to a new report that says most states have inadequate plans to address the worsening and often-overlooked problem (“1 and 50 children experience homelessness” 1). The problem of homelessness

It is known that the children are unable to determine their life circumstances, their families, and care solely for themselves without supervision. With this being said, children have little to no jurisdiction in determining the situations that they are confronted with. Most of the time when we ponder child poverty we think of low-income families or lack of food in the household, but it extends beyond that to “an environment that is damaging to their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual development” (“Children Under Threat,” 2005). Unfortunately, the prevalence of youth poverty in the United States may seem uncommon to those who are personally unaffected by the crisis; however, statistics show that 15 million children (21% of all children) live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold (Child Poverty, 2017). Moreover, when considering the demographics of impoverished children the following are true: a child in the U.S. has a 1 in 5 chance of being poor and the younger they are the poorer they are likely to be, and a child of color is more than twice as likely to be poor than a White child (Child Poverty, 2017). Research proves that poverty is the single greatest threat to a child’s well-being as it decreases the likelihood of a child graduating from high school, and it increases the chances of them becoming involved with the criminal justice system (Ending Child Poverty Now, 2017).

Homelessness has always been a problem in major cities across the United States and even the world. This problem also affects out local community and even all of us individually. (Daily) A majority of the American people lives paycheck to paycheck, and according to statistics, we are only one or two paychecks away from becoming homeless. While there are many reasons a person or family can become homeless, a majority of those problems come from a lack of income. The job market of today is quickly dwindling and shows no signs of improvement. This market mixed with new government policies is becoming an issue for struggling American’s on the poverty line. Homelessness is becoming a vast problem

In today’s society children becoming homeless and having to fend for themselves is wide-spread but homelessness in families also tends to be common (Jewel 2). This issue affects the human population in a very grave way which leaves one out of every fifty children experiencing this immense epidemic (Crary 1). The current recession, has caused sixteen percent of homeless children to be present in our country today and with the economy worsening this statistic will increase (Kingsbury 1).

The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, but yet poverty remains prevalent. Childhood poverty affects every aspect of their life. “Poverty is not having income for basic needs, food, medical care or basic needs and housing” (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 59). Poverty is affecting thousands of Americans every day, and it isn 't sparing anyone of a particular race, age or gender, leaving people on welfare, and without homes, or transportation. Poverty is a crisis that deserves attention from everyone, and it has many faces that are often not recognized