By far, the hardest chapter I had to write in "Car Living When There's No Other Choice" was the chapter on children. The numbers were staggering and heartbreaking.
Today, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics released a report about the connection between children's health and homelessness, reflecting what I wrote in the book about the devastating health effects homelessness has on children. To wit:
According to the article summary, "There are 1.6 million homeless children in the U.S. -- that's one out of 45 children." The article states that physicians can be another line of defense in helping homeless families find the aid that's available to help them through their situation:
"The authors listed several steps for pediatricians to take when treating homeless children or teens, including helping or increasing access to Medicaid, familiarizing themselves with best practices for caring for homeless patients, and delivering comprehensive care during visits, such as providing updated immunizations rather than waiting for a follow-up visit."
Thankfully, the article concludes:
"The authors also suggested pediatricians advocate local, state, and federal officials to enact legislation that provides support and care for those in this population, such as violence protection policies, low-income housing, schooling availability, child care voucher systems, and reform for foster care programs."
I left no stone unturned in my research of the book, and it's nice to see such a high-level medical journal mirroring my findings. Let's just hope that even more people will be helped thanks to alert pediatricians pointing people toward the social services they need, along with engaging them in the reforms to eliminate the problem of children's homelessness to begin with.
Today I found out that the Portland, Oregon-based non-profit, Shower to the People, has had to suspend the service due to lack of funding. I mentioned the great work they do as a full-service mobile shower unit in my book Car Living When There's No Other Choice.
I'm hoping that it is only a temporary delay that will allow Peter Fournier, the owner/proprietor of Shower to the People, a well-earned summer respite. He has logged an enormous amount of time and a major personal fortune into this effort over the last couple of years. May he and his great service come back stronger, swiftly.
Here are the top three states with the largest number of homeless people per capita:
1) Washington, D.C.
2) Hawaii
3) Oregon
To get an idea of what triggers homelessness in any given area, here's a random snapshot of the Harris County (TX) region, showing that Houston, you DEFINITELY have a problem:
Source: Houston/Harris County Coalition for the Homeless: http://ow.ly/jtteX.
Right off the top, you can see that 50% of it is due to issues with income. My next blog post will cover a recent study about that.
Meanwhile, the National Coalition for the Homeless runs a fantastic Facebook page that I encourage everyone to check out and "like":
https://www.facebook.com/NationalCoalitionfortheHomeless
When Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) was in the area last month for a Town Hall meeting, his opening remarks to the crowd were about how the sequestration was a bunch of phony theater and scaremongering on the part of the Party of No. The essence of his comments:
“We need to end the sequestration, and once and for all stop lurching from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis. This is no way to run a country."
“The sequester is a D.C.-created disaster in the making. It’s time to take Congress’s foot off the economic brake, make some smart choices about how we build for the future, and spare Americans from a politician-induced recession.”
Today, there is a really great article over on Bloomberg News, where Josh Barro further illustrates how completely full of shit the Republicans are about deficts. In the article titled, "Boehner Accidentally Explains Why His Deficit Position is Phony," Barro writes:
"Boehner doesn’t really care about the public debt, as he made clear when he repeatedly supported debt-expanding measures under a Republican president. What Boehner and House Republicans really want are excuses to cut federal spending, particularly on programs such as Medicaid and food stamps that support low-income Americans. But those cuts are unpopular, so Republicans frame fiscal debate to make such cuts appear necessary to avoid disaster. If you can’t borrow or tax more, and can’t cut old-age entitlements or the military, which command the majority of federal spending, you’re not left with many options but to soak the poor."
"Soaking the poor is a policy option. It is not, as Boehner would have it, a policy necessity dictated by the inability of the federal government to borrow or tax sustainably. But if the debate instead becomes about tax and spending priorities -- is it more important to provide universal health care or keep tax rates low on high earners -- it shifts to turf unfavorable to Republicans. So they pretend."
So there you have everything you need to know about deficits in a nutshell. Read the brief, full article anyway, since it explains how the U.S. has done just fine with deficits for 55 of the last 60 years (before the bankers stole everything from the public treasury), and that comparing running the federal government to running a business or a household is a bogus analogy.
There is a Facebook page that is an aggregate of articles and tips about homelessness and car living as specifically related to the economy and housing crisis. Visit them at https://www.facebook.com/PeopleLivingOutOfTheirCars and "like" them so they will be encouraged to continue their important compilation work.
