November 17, 2014

The number of  children in the United States who experience homelessness each year has climbed to an all-time high of 2.48 million, according to a new report by the National Center on Family Homelessness in Waltham, Massachusetts. That number represents 1 in every 30 children in the United States. The report, titled America’s Youngest Outcasts, stated that child homelessness increased nationally by 8 percent from 2012 to 2013. The number of homeless children rose in 31 states and the District of Columbia. In 13 states and the District of Columbia, the increase exceeded 10 percent. States with the highest rates of homelessness among children are Kentucky, New York, California, Alabama, Oklahoma, Oregon, New Mexico, Alaska, West Virginia, and Arizona. The National Center on Family Homelessness is a part of the not-for-profit American Institutes for Research, a major behavioral and social science research and evaluation organization.

The report identified six main causes of child homeless in the United States:

• the country’s high poverty rate,
• a lack of affordable housing,
• the continuing impact of the Great Recession (2007-2009),
• lack of equality among races,
• the challenges of single parenting,
• the ways in which traumatic experiences, especially domestic violence, precede and prolong homelessness for families.

In contrast to homeless veterans and chronically homeless people, “Children and families have not received the same attention—and their numbers are growing,” the report concluded. “Without decisive action and the allocation of sufficient resources, the nation will fail to reach the stated federal goal of ending family homelessness by 2020, and child homelessness may result in a permanent Third World in America.”