Child homelessness spikes as marriage crumbles

The number of homeless children in America is at an all-time high of almost 2.5 million, an 8 percent increase from 2012 to 2013, according to a report released Monday.

The report claims one in every 30 children in the United States is homeless, or “lacking a fixed, adequate, and regular nighttime residence.” It blamed poverty, trouble finding affordable housing, trauma from domestic abuse, and the difficulty of single parenting for the spike in the number of kids without homes.

“Living in shelters, neighbors’ basements, cars, campgrounds, and worse—homeless children are the most invisible and neglected individuals in our society,” said Carmela DeCandia, director of the National Center on Family Homelessness at the American Institute for Research, which issued the report.

The institute report conducted state-by-state analysis of child homelessness. Connecticut, New Jersey, and Rhode Island had the lowest rates, while Kentucky, New York, and California had the highest. The institute used data from the Department of Education’s count of homeless children in public schools in 2013 and supplemented that with U.S. Census data for children in the pre-school age group.

The report used a wider definition of “homeless” than the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), one of many federal agencies that also count family homelessness. According to the 2014 HUD “Point In Time” (PIT) count in January 2014, a single day count of homeless people in America, the number of unsheltered families decreased from the previous year. But the institute report argues that count doesn’t take into consideration families and children living in motels, trailers, parks, camp grounds, or families “doubled-up” with family members or friends.

The Denver Rescue Mission has 100 families currently on a waiting list for its STAR Transitional Program, a residential program aimed at providing participants with the skills and training to become self-sufficient. The number of families needing assistance has increased in the last two years, Alexxa Gagner, a mission spokeswoman, told me. Families come to them from the streets, shelters, motels, or extended family and friend’s homes. She said education and mentorship for homeless youth is key: “Our goal is … to break that cycle.”

Incentivizing and supporting marriage is one of the best ways to prevent youth homelessness in the first place, said Leslie Ford, a researcher at the Heritage Foundation.

“An essential component of reducing childhood poverty—including childhood homelessness—should be efforts to increase the percentage of children born to their married mother and father,” Ford wrote in an article for the Daily Signal. She points to the fact that 40 percent of today’s children are born outside of marriage, and that children raised in a single parent home are five times more likely to be poor: “Single parenthood drastically increases the likelihood of poverty and the risks of negative outcomes for children. … Unfortunately, the welfare system penalizes marriage and creates incentives against couples committing to one another.”