We’re A Country That Lets Kids Go Homeless
School is a disaster. Since many homeless families have to move constantly, the kids get pulled in and out of school and can end up being held back. Often they are too hungry or stressed to learn. It’s tough to do homework, even if they’ve landed in a shelter, because even the mundane becomes stressful. ”Let’s say you have six to eight families in a shelter, each in a room, and there are two to three kids in a family,” says Bassuk. “That’s a lot of kids running around. It’s chaos. The whole family sleeps in the same room; if one kid gets an earache, nobody sleeps.”
“It’s so mind-blowing for me,” says Diane Nilan. “No matter what we’ve done — and I’ve been involved in significant advocacy efforts to enlighten Congress — there’s this mindset, I don’t know if it’s denial or what, to totally ignore the people who are the most vulnerable. You see abysmal conditions that little babies are growing up in. They’re in the prime period of human development,” she says. ”It’s a horrible, horrible oversight, the way we are neglecting little kids when they need us the most.”
FILM: The Homestretch
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