Texas is No. 1...

...in child homelessness.

How awful. At first blush, what do you expect from a state that has suffered for years and years under Republican "leadership" such as we have had in Texas? There's no time to help families when you have businesses that need help. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, dammit. If you have boots.

To expand the lens, what do we really expect from a country that refuses to create much of a social safety net? No universal healthcare. AFDC, if it still exists in some states, has been cut. The CHIP (Children's Health Insurance) programs are getting cut. Education funds are getting cut. Home foreclosures at record levels. Unemployment pay is given begrudgingly.

This is a sink-or-swim, dog-eat-dog culture here in the United States. You'd better look out for #1 (yourself), because no one else will. If you don't pay, you don't play. Not in this country.

Once again, I'm reminded of Sarah Palin, back on the campaign trail when she would repeatedly say that there has not been one moment when she was not proud of America. Which would be greeted by thunderous applause. This was, of course, a response and a jab at Michelle Obama, who had said she hadn't been too proud of America until Barack was successful. I forget the exact words. Well, Sarah, either you have no compassion, or you are even more ignorant than everyone assumed. And I have no kind words for your "fans" either.

This is just disgusting...

Homeless kids suffer in Texas
State ranked worse in U.S. in how faltering children handled
By LINDA STEWART BALL Associated Press
March 9, 2009

DALLAS — Texas is the worst place in the nation for homeless children and the faltering economy will push even more families with little ones into the streets, according to a new report.

A study by the National Center on Family Homelessness released Tuesday placed Texas 50th — last of all states — in how homeless children fare.

The ranking considered four areas: the percentage of homeless children; their overall well-being; risk factors for homelessness, such as poverty and foreclosure rates; and what the state is doing to address the problems.

“You’ve got a difficult context,” said Dr. Ellen Bassuk, president of the national center that produced the report and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

She said that the child poverty level in Texas is 23 percent, compared to 18 percent nationwide. Add to that the state’s high foreclosure rate and Texas children start off at a disadvantage.

“You’re a big state; you’ve got a significant problem,” Bassuk said. “Texas needs to respond.”

The report defined as homeless any child age 18 or younger living with at least one parent or caregiver in such places as emergency shelters, motels, cars, or campgrounds due to economic hardships or losing their own homes. It did not include runaways or abandoned children.

Texas has more than 337,000 homeless children — just over 5 percent of all kids living in the state, according to the study. It noted, however, that number may have been temporarily inflated by families who lost their homes during the hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005.

Bassuk said that while Texas has a trust created to provide low-income housing (ha!) — something a lot of states don’t have — it has no statewide plan in place to address homeless issues.

“Although they’ve (state officials) clearly got something started, they didn’t follow through on it which is why Texas scored inadequate in planning,” Bassuk said.

Across the U.S., the study found that one of every 50 kids are homeless each year. The rate in Texas is probably a bit higher.

State officials and advocacy groups differ on the number of homeless children in Texas — estimates range from 55,000 to 250,000 — but all agree that the numbers are increasing.

Michael Gerber, Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs’ executive director, said there’s no doubt more people are in poverty.

“We’re really needing to think long and hard about how we integrate our social service system because homeless kids are truly the most vulnerable among us,” Gerber said.

Gerber said the Texas Interagency Council for the Homeless, which coordinates the state’s homeless resources and services, hopes to release a comprehensive plan to battle homelessness next month.

Ken Martin, executive director of the Texas Homeless Network, an information clearinghouse for more than 250 organizations that help the homeless, said there are signs that the problem is being taken seriously.

Still, he called the percentage of Texans without health care insurance, the lack of affordable housing and high poverty rates a “recipe for disaster.”

“At the other end of the scale are people who are way over their heads in houses they can’t afford,” Martin said. “When they lose their jobs or have a health care crisis, they’re out on the street and they take their kids with them.”

At Family Gateway in Dallas, more married couples with kids are turning to the agency’s transitional housing program for help.

“No one knew the economy was going to crash so hard like it did,” said Larry Canady, 38, who took his family to the shelter three weeks ago, no longer able to make ends meet after he and his wife were laid off from their jobs. “It caught us off guard.”

The family of five was already living from paycheck-to paycheck. They went from renting a four-bedroom brick home in a south Dallas suburb to sharing one room in a dormitory-like shelter.

Their children, ages 13, 11, and 6, appear to be adjusting to their cramped but clean quarters and new inner-city schools.

“I can only thank God they’ve been OK,” (geez!) said Linesa Canady, 35, a former risk analyst for a bank. “They’ve been very understanding.”

The couple’s youngest is pragmatic about their circumstances.

“If somebody gives you food, you eat it,” said Cristian Canady, a precocious kindergartner. “First you bless it,” he said, putting his small hands together in prayer.

Eleven-year-old Tyra is also grateful but said she doesn’t want people to pity or look down on her.

“Just because you live in a shelter doesn’t mean you have to be treated any different,” she said, explaining that she’s still the same girl who dreams of being a veterinarian, pediatrician or actress someday.

They’ve just fallen on hard times.

Original is here.