The New Face Of Homelessness

One In 50 School-Aged Children Living Outside Of A Permanent Home

(CBS)  When Michael Rotundo finishes school every day, he comes home to a double bed at the Budget Inn - no yard, no neighborhood kids,

"I don't have a lot of thinking room," Michael said. "I can't think straight with math, reading."

"You're having a tough time in school?" asked CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.

"Yes," Michael said. "I almost failed."

Michael is 12, but talks, acts and worries like an adult.

"We can't get a home because we don't have a lot of money left over to rent a house or buy a house," Michael said. "It's just so hard for me and my family to live here."

Michael, his mom and dad have been living in this motel room for 11 months, ever since his dad lost his job. His parents are working again, and they make too much money to qualify for food stamps or Medicaid and live week to week. Sometimes day to day. Mom Julie can see her son changing.

"He worries," Julie Rotundo said. "He's afraid to ask me for things. He's afraid to tell me that there's a school event that we're going to miss. And I don't know what to do. I'm sorry. It's tough. Just imagine."

Across the country about one in 50 school kids is living just like Michael in hotels or shelters, or with friends and relatives. And their numbers are growing fast.

Although it's difficult to get exact figures, nationwide schools reported an 18 percent jump in homeless kids in the 2007-2008 school year. School districts in California and Florida report an even bigger increase this year.

Many kids lost more than just their homes.

"I have like no clothes anymore because I lost them all," said Breanna Martin, a 13-year-old. "So basically I wear whatever I can find. I'm wearing right now my grandpa's shirt and my grandma's pants. It's really hard not having anything of your own and wearing someone else's."

Breanna is one of the hundreds of school children who land in Beth Davalos's office, who runs the Familes in Transition program for Seminole County Schools in Florida.

"Homelessness affects a child emotionally, socially, physically, developmentally," Davalos said. "Their life is not predictable. They're not grounded anymore. They want to feel safe."

Davalos makes sure the kids stay in the same school, no matter where they're living, and helps their parents find a more permanent home.

And every once in a while one of her families gets lucky. Josh Dillon, his sister Alyssa, and his autistic brother Martin lived next door to the Rotundo family in the same motel with their mom Aimee for over two years.

Last December a donor heard about the Dillion family through Davalos' program and came forward with a check for $1,080, enough to cover a deposit for a home and utilities. And that has turned around a downward slide for the family.

"I've seen a world of difference in my kids," said Aimee Dillon. "Maybe not anything substantial that would matter to anyone else but I've seen a change in all of them."

Aimee hopes to get back to work now that her family is stable.

"I feel that they feel they are protected now," Aimee said. "They don't have a lot to worry about."

Davalos also helped the Wega Family. After their home was foreclosed on and bulldozed last year, they lived with another family for 6 months.

"You literally lost everything?" Cobiella asked.

"Everything was wiped out," Richard Wega said. "What we couldn't get out in the 24 hours got left behind."

The Wega Family's three daughters suffered from depression and their grades dropped while they were homeless. The family is slowing turning things around.

"This is much better than what you had a month ago, right?" Cobiella asked.

"Big time," said daughter Kacy Jo. "I had to sleep on a couch. Actually I had to sleep on a loveseat."

Now in an apartment, the family is saving for another home. The girls' grades are improving and they are starting to feel safe again.

"I know we'll have a place to come back to," said Kacy Jo. "If we go somewhere we have a place to go home."

While both of Michael's parents work now, they still can't save enough to get out of the Budget Inn.

"I really wish I had my own room so that I could have friends over," Michael said. "You know being in the neighborhood - go out and play football and go out and have some fun."

"Have a normal kids' life?" Cobiella asked.

"Yeah," Michael said. "I wish I had a normal kid's life. But I don't."

And it's getting harder for him to imagine a day when he will.

[singletax]

Homelessness started, on a systemic scale, back in the 1880s when all the land in the USA became legally owned.. From this point on a constant class of people were put out on the streets because to exist in the USA one had to pay an inflated price to exist to those who owned land. Simply put, all land was bottled up and titled as law-made property in direct violation of natural law and the natural rights we possess as human beings. To compensate, the liberals created Housing Act after Housing Act, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Jobs Programs,... etc. redistributing income of those who can afford land. The conservatives see no problem in privatizing land that no human created and say just live in your car or under a bridge if the market price is to high. Both agendas are wrong.

The solution is to recapture the rental value of land by instituting a fee on the privilege to title land no one created. This can be accomplished by taxing land values. Shift the property tax off property and put the burden on land value. Thomas Paine and Henry George should be required reading if you want to understand homelessness, not Marx and Rush Limbaugh.

[scottdavene]

I have been homeless at several points in my life. Contrary to popular belief, most homeless did not become so out of choice and not because they are lazy, stupid, or immoral. Many homeless people are victims of abuse in the form of neglect and abandonment by their parents or other caregivers. Some of them are simply victims of life?s tragedies, such as hurricanes, fires, or other catastrophes from which they simply don?t have the resources to recover. I invite you to my blog devoted to raising awareness on homelessness: www.freethegods.com. There you will find an article I wrote on homelessness and pictures I have taken of homeless people. I always give them a dollar or two for the privilege of photographing them. I am often surprised by their cheerfulness and sense of pride. Often, they will show themselves to have some kind of talent. There is a fine line between genius and insanity.

[mistymiley82]

This story really hits home with me. My son who is 5 and I have been homeless for the last two years. We lost everything in hurricane Katrina, my husband was a captain on the firedept, and because off all the stress from what he went through as a civil servant during that crazy time he was so affected that it caused him to seek a divorce. I started working again for the first time since my son was born and took caree of us welll for about two years. But then I lost my job, and my truck broke down. I didnt have the money to fix it, and with no public transportatation where I live I had no way to find more work. Thats when I lost my home. That was two years ago, since then I have had severaljobs here and there, usually walking to and from work miles at a time, but everything in my small louisiana town is closing down, so im only able to find work a little at a time. HIve even done some bartending in strip clubs and bars, which isnt me. Im just showing how hard I am trying. I have no family, and no time for friends. I spend everyday worrying about how ill have a snack and dinner for my 5 year old after school, and praying that whoever we're staying with can tolerate us just a little longer so we wont have to move again yet. I know its coming though, Ill have to find another place, and Im terrified that soon I will loose my son. And I am not a bad mother, I always provide, no matter what I have to do, and I love him enough to do anything it takes. The only crime im guilty of is poverty, and not having the chance to get back on my feet. I worked hard in school, graduated in the top ten percent of my class, I worked for gateway for two years, and then owned my own payday loan company, Im not lazy, and Im not stupid. This is a real tradgedy, and this is happening to people all across our country every day. We are americans, that used to mean something. I couldnt love my country any more than I do, many wonderful men and women have given up their families, and their lives so that we can enjoy the life of our grandparents and parents, enjoy the same freedoms, but I feel like I have no freedom sometimes, Im a prisoner of a system that doesnt provide aid to me, I cant find help anywhere.

[iam4honesty]

If you are mature enough you will remember. The last time this country had a massive increase in the number of homeless was during the era of Ronald Reagan. Families were living under bridges or anywhere they could find a dry spot. Now, thanks to the Bush/Cheney crime cartel, here we are again. The republican party, as it currently exists, must be destroyed and dismantled. It can no longer be allowed to destroy our nation.