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Showing Original Post only (View all)Fall on Hard Times, Have Your Kids Taken Away? How America Treats Poor Parents Like Criminals [View all]
http://www.alternet.org/fall-hard-times-have-your-kids-taken-away-how-america-treats-poor-parents-criminalsShakieta Smith needed a place to go. The homeless mother of two called a Washington, DC shelter hotline last year, but was told there were no available spaces. Then the intake worker told her that if she and her kids had nowhere safe to sleep, shed be reported to the citys Child and Family Services Agency for a possible investigation into abuse and neglect, the Washington Post reported.
Smith is not the only mother to fear having her children taken away and put into foster care due to homelessness. According to the Post, 32 other families in DC have been threatened in a similar way. And about 25 states in the country list a caregivers inability to provide shelter as part of their definition of abuse and neglect, though some of those laws have been challenged in court. Its yet another heartwrenching reminder of the myriad legal troubles that accompany being poor and homeless.
These people are simply walking in the door for assistance and people dont have shelter and theyre saying, Were calling [Child Protective Services] on you?' Its ridiculous, homeless advocate Ruth Anne White told the Post.
According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, homeless children are at particularly high risk for being placed in foster care. 12% of homeless children are placed in foster care compared to just over 1% of other children.
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Fall on Hard Times, Have Your Kids Taken Away? How America Treats Poor Parents Like Criminals [View all]
xchrom
Feb 2013
OP
They put out an arrest warrant for him for *can't remember what the charge was
Viva_La_Revolution
Feb 2013
#23
We've been arguing that our state lost jurisdiction when the family moved to another state
no_hypocrisy
Feb 2013
#44
The difference between our welfare and other countries' child allowances is that
Lydia Leftcoast
Feb 2013
#32
Some of the street kids I worked with had been through the foster care system
Lydia Leftcoast
Feb 2013
#21
Similar to the corrupt judge sentencing kids to for profit incarceration, $$ motivates $$
me b zola
Feb 2013
#25