Child Homelessness at its Worst Since '30s

clipped from rawstory.com One in 50 American children is homeless and the economic crisis hitting the United States will make the problem worse, a report released Tuesday said. "Without a voice, more than 1.5 million of our nation's children go to sleep without a home each year," said the "America's Young Outcasts" report by the National Center on Family Homelessness. The child homelessness crisis is the worst since the Great Depression, says the report, which looked at the years 2005-06 -- or before the economic slump had fully hit the United States. Children without homes are twice as likely to go hungry, more than twice as likely as middle class children to have health problems, and run twice the risk of other children of repeating a grade at school, being expelled or suspended, or not finishing high school, the report said.

The report found:

• 25% have witnessed violence.
  
• 22% have been separated from their families.
  
• Half have problems with anxiety and depression.
  
• 20% of preschoolers have emotional problems that require professional care.
  

"It is unacceptable for one child in the United States to be homeless for even one day," it said, slamming the US government and media for ignoring the plight of homeless children while doling out huge sums of money to help "grossly overpaid bankers, captains of industry and carmakers" in 2008.

"What does it say about our country that we are willing to bail out banks but not our smallest most vulnerable citizens?" the report asked.

Good question. At what point do we decide that the American family is "too big to fail?"