Officials: Homelessness Crosses Into Classroom

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.thenewmexicochannel.com/education/4415978/detail.html

DEMING, N.M. -- While it may be in every community, the classroom is the last place most people might expect to find it. snip

"Last year, we had a little over 140 homeless students, and this year it's more like 200," she said.

That means almost 4 percent of the students in the district are without a home.

In the state's largest school district, about 3.2 percent of students are homeless -- which is 2,800 out of 87,000 Albuquerque public school kids.

more

[youspeakmylanguage]

1. Many, many more children are one step away...

...living in cheap hotels. It is a national catastrophe that will only get worse.

[Horse with no Name]

2. There is no safety net

And the problem only promises to get worse.
These children will learn the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest.
As a country, we are failing the most fragile of our population.
I certainly wish people would wake up before it is too late for these lost children and before these children become lost souls.:cry:

[AngryOldDem]

4. And let's support the mothers and dads

who do everything within their mortal powers to make sure their kids are getting to school and getting an education -- washing out their kids' school uniforms at night in a bathroom sink; asking shelter staff for paper, pens, and pencils so their kids can do homework; making sure their families are ready to go catch the bus in the morning; helping their kids do homework at night while the tempest of the shelter environment swirls around them.

I admire, honor, and respect these men and women. They truly humble me.

Lazy welfare bums? I'm sure they do exist somewhere, but I sure as hell haven't seen them.

And your observation is correct. By the time the kids reach 13 or 14, a hardness takes over them. Their demeanor changes, as if they know that things probably aren't going to get much better for them, and they are as angry as hell. You know where some of these kids are most likely headed -- to the streets, for sure; jail and what lies beyond most likely. It is heartbreaking to see.

[Jimbo S]

5. And you know

the freepers won't give a fuck.

[AngryOldDem]

6. I know they won't...

...which is why I do.

[Horse with no Name]

7. Amen to that.

Me too.
You might not like their parents or what they do, but love the children.

[AngryOldDem]

9. Actually, I've met very few homeless

whom I do not genuinely like. Most are good people, caught in a bad spot, trapped by their own demons in some cases, but human beings, bottom line. Too many of us forget that, either out of disgust or our own discomfort of having to recognize that there are many in this "well-off" society who just aren't making it.

Someday I hope to be a case manager who works specifically with families. A homeless shelter is devastating for a family unit. It is defeating for the adult and disruptive and (the longer they stay)corrupting to the child. Most parents I see are good parents, but I worry deeply about the constant stress they are under. I have seen borderline cases of abuse (most often verbal, with some physical incidences here and there) -- while I do not excuse it, I totally understand where it comes from, which is why we must make the effort to get families into stable and healthy situations, such as their own houses. The adults are fully capable of taking care of their kids. But they either can't find work, or they work but don't make enough to afford even the cheapest housing. That, to my mind, is a sin and a crime of the highest social order.

Seeing families -- especially young children who do not realize where they are at or why they are there -- is the hardest part of a job I love fiercely. I find I have to put A LOT of emotional distance between them and me, but sometimes it's hard. Last weekend I was cleaning up in the family area when I noticed a piece of paper on the floor. Thinking it was trash, I picked it up. It was a note from a child to her mom: "MOM -- I LOVE YOU." I unfolded it and put it back on the table, so the woman could see it again that evening. I will never throw that piece of paper away as long as it's in that room. Guaranteed.

[Horse with no Name]

24. One of my patients was a homeless man who was

beaten up pretty severely. I was his primary nurse. For weeks he had been restrained and combative because of the head injury.
I worked nights and he was doing better so I was sitting and talking to him. I asked him why he was homeless.
He told me the story. He worked for Texas Instruments in Dallas and had a great job as an engineer. He had been married for about 10 years to the love of his life. They didn't have children. She was having some headaches so she dropped him off at work and was going to the doctor. She died two hours later from an aneurysm.
He didn't get to tell her goodbye. He quit going to work and basically just hit the skids. He explained that the day he lost his wife was the day he lost everything that was important. The day he lost all of his material things was just another day to him.:(
To most he just looked like another bum, but he was just a broken man who loved his wife.
OT a little bit--I was working trauma at Baylor University Medical Center--downtown Dallas--and there is a huge amount of homeless people that come in because people that hate hit them in the head with baseball bats when they are sleeping on the sidewalks.:(
The world is getting sadder every year.

[DBoon]

3. 25 years of RW crap about "welfare bums driving cadillacs"

and this is what you get. Surprise surprise.

[UpInArms]

8. an article for a little perspective

Exec Perks: An Ugly Picture Emerges

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/bw/20050427/bs_bw/nf200504274085db042&e=3

excerpt:

"IT'S JUST PLAIN UNSEEMLY." It's hard to imagine a giveaway more over the top than the one Moonves and Freston receive at Viacom. Moonves, who lives in Los Angeles, owns a home in New York. When he stays at that home while traveling on business, he's reimbursed -- to the tune of $105,000 in 2004. Likewise, Freston -- who lives in New York and owns a home in Los Angeles -- was reimbursed $43,100 for staying at his L.A. domicile last year. Both executives earned about $20 million apiece in 2004. The company declined to comment.

That handout may be especially shameless, but Moonves and Freston are hardly the only execs who get their companies to help pay their housing costs. Rather than pick up the tab for a hotel, Time Warner (NYSE:TWX - News) pays CEO Richard Parsons a $4,000 monthly housing allowance -- plus $365 for utilities -- for an apartment in Los Angeles. The company describes the payments as "a valid business expense," citing benefits that include convenience, security, and keeping business transactions confidential.

At Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS - News), the company this year reported that outgoing CEO Michael Eisner has received a $10,000-a-month allowance toward maintenance of his apartment in New York City, where he travels frequently on business. Disney says the payment is less than it would fork out if Eisner were staying at hotels. But critics contend that such allowances are a way to funnel additional cash to executives who are already extremely well compensated.

<snip>

Leonard Schaeffer, the chairman of WellPoint (NYSE:WLP - News), stepped down as CEO on Jan. 31 with a severance package estimated at $120 million -- but apparently that wasn't enough. The company also gave him a mind-boggling array of retirement benefits, including four years of medical benefits, three club memberships, and title to a car.

...more...

I am more and more convinced that there is no justice in this world.

:argh:

(edited to fix html)

[montana_hazeleyes]

15. Dear lord,

this is plain obscene.

[sweetheart]

17. What perspective is that on homeless children in New mexico?

I'm sure you've had a job requiring travel, perhaps lots of it. I know
i've been, as part of jobs, stationed in cities i don't live in, and
i damn well expect to be reimbursed for all my living expenses in said
cities, as i've already a home elsewhere i'm paying for with me salary.

In some such engagements, the hotel rates are exhorbitant, like 400
dollars per night. IF you work in a city for 2 weeks at that sort of
rate, including weekends, the hotel bill alone is 5600 bucks, plus
food, taxis and other expenses that really are for travel.

As much as you can attempt to make this an issue about homelessness,
rather that is related to taxes, and perhaps your message is that the
income disparity between rich and poor is too much. But to call an
article that cuts the net hotel bills and makes life less painful for
people who have to live on the road in other cities, is not the right
focus.

It sounds like an executive perk, but when you're living away from your
loved ones, thousands of miles off doing long hours of work in a business,
its not quite the cush perk the article paints out. Rather they really
are legitimate expenses that would not be incurred by the employees
where they not doing business in some places.

Quite frankly, if you're stationed in most world capital cities, the
first thing to do is rent a flat, as it will save the company money
over hotel bills, AND provide a less abrasive living climate while
you're there.

Anyone who thinks this stuff is absurd, has never worked a sales job,
or professional contract work. Lots of people do those jobs, and
a lot of them are democrats. Travel expenses ARE legitimate and
should be reimbursed.

This has no relationship whatsoever, even perspective, on children
in new mexico. There is a gross failure of the public obligation to
our children, something that should be fixed by a proper safety
net.

[UpInArms]

20. it's not the housing costs

that I take such exception to - it is the rate of compensation.

When I see that these mult-million dollar annual salaries continue at such a pace, while there is a huge disparity between the rich and the poor - while our Congress refuses to increase the minimum wage above $5.15 per hour - how in the world can anyone raise a child on that?

Homelessness is a huge issue.

Have you read "Nickled and Dimed"?

http://bookstore24x7.com/b-nickel-dimed-not-getting-q

[sweetheart]

25. I did my own homelessness research

I was homeless after living in new mexico for a year and working there
for less than minimum wage as a Denny's waitperson. They claimed it
was minimum wage, but the wage was 2 bucks and hour, (plus tips if there
were any), and i worked entire shifts, plus side work (what takes an
extra free labour hour), and ended up so broke i got a friend to drive
me to denver and leave me there where i lived in a tent outside boulder.

I was very fortunate that a friend let me use her address/tel to apply
for jobs from my tent, and landed a job after not too long, bought an
old beater car with my first paycheque and moved in to my car... what a
luxury to have a private space to sleep in that they could not theive
or evict me from.

There is no question that homelessness is a serious stress, something
that i swear is more stressful than anything else in a person's life,
as you feel how you're only inches away from permanent homelessness that
you'll be totally broken and broke wandering the streets very hungry.

Who can afford a flat in albuquerque on minimum wage? It is absurd the
disparity between the wage and the housing costs. Rather they've built
up the million dollar houses in the northeast heights, but the seedy
shit in the southeast and city center is i guess supposed to take the
working poor... who commute up to the northeast to serve the rich
and then down the hill to the dump for a night by the rio grande.

Homelessness is dreadful and i'd wish it on no person, ever... well
perhaps the bush cabal. Albuquerque and the sun belt cities are
crap for jobs, with the population growing from retirees and such,
without any stable long term developing businesses outside retail,
healthcare and government. It is worrysome further, that the places
that are exploding in american population are those with the least
social infrastructure... and it does not suprise me in the least that
so many homeless are in new mexico.

[chlamor]

10. This is a disgrace

Land of the free? Gimme a break. Children without a home.

Everything is broken

[ngGale]

11. And the media never talks about it...

most don't even care.

[Daphne08]

12. I had homeless students in my high school classroom

a few times.

It's very sad when you realize that school lunch is usually the best meal they will eat all day.

I've seen teachers, churches and charity groups do their best to help these kids and their families, but eventually most homeless students will just drop out. At least, that's been my experience.

There is no excuse for this in America... at least, not in the America that I used to know.

[Tigress DEM]

13. Homeless can't even get food stamps...

You have to prove you have somewhere to cook the food.

If you're living in a relative's basement, that's ok, but you better not say that you prepare meals with them or you get your allottment calculated to include part of their income as well.

[Erika]

14. Bushies/GOP won't listen to these figures

They will simply say it's the fault of the people. They will say if the people don't care enough to earn proper money for their kids, it's the parent's faults and we shouldn't have to make up for the fault of the parents. Been there, done that. There is no compassion, no introspection, nor anything else. Then they will pursue such programs as getting the inheritance tax eliminated. They have blinders on them that couldn't be blown away by sand blasting.

[AngryOldDem]

16. Remember Bush's words

during the campaign? He was asked what those people who were displaced by outsourcing and other economic trends could do if they lost their jobs and were having trouble starting over.

He said that there were many ways to "embetter" themselves, and that they should take advantage of them. Just Bushspeak for "I really couldn't give a shit."

[Solly Mack]

18. No child left behind and all that...

[EFerrari]

19. I read last winter that the fastest growing demographic

among the homeless is single mothers with children. So the stereotype of the lazy lone drug seeking male is about to go right out the window.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

21. I got robbed in Deming, New Mexico

And I'm still a "liberal"!

(I figured it served me right for staying in a motel that cost twelve dollars in 1998. Imagine being so broke that you're homeless in Deming....)

[rodeodance]

22. won't it be lovely for a reporter to bring this up--homeless kids tonight?

boy-it would blow some minds!!

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

23. BET would have done it

But now their news is kaput. Just a few months ago they headlined a homeless man's murder in Dallas.

[roguevalley]

26. I had a student that lived with his mom and twin sister in a car in

the deepest part of winter for about three months in Alaska. We should be ashamed as a people. They were fifth graders too.

[Megahurtz]

28. In Alaska?

Holy Shit!:scared: Brrrrrrrrr!!!

[AnneD]

27. I work as a school nurse....

and this is more common than you think. It is not just the economy either. They can also be victims of domestic violence too. My tip off... an immunization record with one set of dates. Infact, these days we see more families in shelters than what you think of as a typical homeless. It does a psychological number on these kids because young children crave security above all else. It effects their ability to trust others later in life (an important socializing skill needed for our society and civilization).

[CitySky]

29. unfortunately this is not news

Parents with kids were an increasing segment of the homeless population I served as a volunteer from 1987 to 1992. I remember doing a drive for kids' school shoes one year, and we needed something like 20 pairs of shoes. The next year, over 90. The next year we were in 3-digits. And so on.

I remember a mom with four or five little ones sleeping on thin mats on the church's concrete floor. I remember a wonderful pair of articulate and charming preschoooler-aged kids who would come to all of our meals with their equally articulate and charming father -- I think they lived in a car for a while (couldn't sleep at the "women & children" shelter because he was a man, and the men's shelter wasn't appropriate for kids) until they got a place.

During my junior year of college I wrote a paper about the phenomenon of Homeless Children in Schools, and the steps schools were taking to implement the then-recent McKinney-Vento Act, which provided some protections for the kids, legally. But socially and often academically, these kids were hurting.

[benny05]

30. Shameful

:cry:

[ignatius 2]

31. Fuck,that breaks my heart. In the richest goddamned country in the

world we can spend $400 Billion a year on the military, 300 Billion in a fucked up phoney war, but we can't even provide shelter for our children.

This sucks bigtime. The greedy repigs in Washington want to make cuts in medicaid and welfare benefits to make sure the problem gets even worse.