THE HOMELESS, THE HUNGRY, AND THE WORKING POOR — by Catherine Morgan

We have a growing crisis in America today, and it is our own countries blatant neglect of the homeless, the hungry, and the working poor. It was recently reported that there are 744,000 people that are homeless in the United States today. Even worse, over 40% of the homeless are families. Reuters reported that more Americans went homeless and hungry in 2006 than the year before and that children made up almost one quarter of those in emergency shelters.

Children and families are the new faces of the homeless and hungry in America, and it seems to me that most Americans, as well as the government would just like to turn a blind-eye to this growing crisis. Why is that? We are the richest and most powerful country in the world, surely we can help are own citizens? We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq alone, it seems shameful that we don’t even spend a fraction of that amount on helping the most needy in our own county.

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Current Statistics

Over 9 million children are estimated to be served by the America's Second Harvest Network, over 2 million of which are ages 5 and under, representing nearly 13% of all children under age 18 in the United States and over 72% of all children in poverty. [i]

According to the USDA, an estimated 12.4 million children lived in food insecure (low food security and very low food security) households in 2005. [ii]

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It was recently reported that there are 744,000 people that are homeless in the United States today. Even worse, over 40% of the homeless are families.

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with this from Christian Science Monitor, May, 2006

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At least 3.5 million persons are likely to experience homelessness during a year in the United States and 40 percent of them will be children. None of these children got counted this year, either.

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And this from Penn State U last November,

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The results in this morning’s news are just the most recent report of rising income and wealth inequality in America. The number of Americans living in poverty (37 million) is static. The number of the nation’s working poor continues to grow. In 2003 the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reported 13.1 million people, including 7 million children, are working and yet unable to rise above the poverty line. Thus about 50 million Americans do not make enough money to afford even the basics. What does this mean for the nation’s outlook?

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Originally posted by Nanuq:
It's not as if Canadian are in a position to be smug about this. We too have a homeless problem for all that we brag about our social safety net.

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But we're not the world's wealthiest nation, which was the contradiction I wanted to point out.

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Originally posted by Nanuq:
It's not as if Canadian are in a position to be smug about this. We too have a homeless problem for all that we brag about our social safety net.

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