Rising Poverty in the Nation\'s Young Families Children and Homelessness

¶ … families are living in poverty. Many of these families are living in such extreme conditions that they cannot afford even such basic needs as food for every meal. Living and growing up in such conditions affects every area of life and ultimately the country as a whole. The escalation of poverty among families create tremendous challenges for children. It can negatively impact a growing child's mental and physical health, for example. Such conditions also affect education. A child suffering from chronic mental or physical conditions related to poverty cannot receive optimal educational opportunities. Ultimately, such a child will not be able to contribute to the economy of the country or arrange his or her own well-being in the world. This, in turn, creates further burdens for the country's welfare system. For this reason, it is important to study the contributing factors to poverty in the country in order to find solutions and to help families afflicted by poverty and its associated conditions to elevate themselves towards better economic conditions. This is then also the purpose of this literature review. An important trend in the literature is how the parent-child relationship is affected by one of the most common effects of poverty, which is homelessness or residential instability. Indeed, many parents are unable to properly nurture and bond with their children as a result of the many stress factors they face every day. This has effects on the mental and physical health of children, along with their prospects of education and future gainful employment.

Aratani (2009) confirms that housing is pivotal in the well-being of families and the children that form part of such families. The author makes a particular point of focusing on the stability of housing in affecting the well-being and development of children. The lack of affordable housing often creates not only a situation in which families are homeless, but could also result in moving from home to home frequently and/or sharing homes with family or friends. This instability has fundamental effects on the growth and development of young children.

Statistics reveal the dire extent of the problem (Aratani, 2009). Of the more than 1.5 million children living in families without a stable home, 42% are less than six years old. These families are most likely to be headed by single mothers in their twenties, with young children being part of the household.

Aratani (2009) reports the most common causes of homelessness as lack of affordable housing, poverty, and domestic violence. Another factor of concern related to homelessness is the number of "unaccompanied youth" who face homelessness. Factors that play a role here are mental illness and substance abuse, along with the common factor of less than affordable housing.

One of the most important recommendations the author makes to mitigate the situation is an increase in school-based and community-based services to assess homeless children and youth, using a trauma-informed approach. This is an important component of Aratani's work, since offering solutions to the problem is as important as studying its varying contributing factors.

Specifically, a publication by the Institute for Children and Poverty note that housing instability can have poor school, social, and emotional outcomes for young children. These effects are both "potent" and "long lasting," being exacerbated according to the young age of the child.

A publication by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (2012) confirms this, along with the stress factor affecting parents in families without homes or with unstable home situations. The stress of having to care for the family, along with the fact that poverty makes it impossible to do so effectively, tends to absorb parental attention in a home where poverty is the norm. Hence, young children who need a large amount of attention from their parents to develop in a healthy way, suffer. Their mental and emotional development suffer first, with educational factors following. These children often grow up to become heads of poor and homeless families as well, which makes it a cyclical problem. It is little wonder that such families are among the "fastest growing groups in the United States" (Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, 2012).

As a remedy, the publication proposes that social work staff be educated regarding the many relationship and other challenges faced by these families, including trauma. If the poverty cycle is to be mitigated, active interventions will be required by trained staff and with the cooperation of afflicted families.

A publication by Ascend (2011) suggests that partnerships among publicly active parties such as journalists, businesspeople, philanthropists and policymakers can provide a powerful network to lead change for economically vulnerable families. It is only by creating a platform for such families to learn to create and sustain their own economic viability, in addition to mitigating stress factors and trauma, that the cycle of poverty can truly be broken.