Victims in Class Warfare

The news treats homeless families springing up all across the country as if it were a sudden development, but it's something that has been in the making since Reagan's term. By taking away living wages from working people, then letting industries like oil raise prices inordinately, the creation of homelessness is just another byproduct.

Last night's report from Sacramento showed a growing encampment of homeless people there, as racymind posted today. As she remarked, this is hardly confined to California's capitol.

In Texas, we have the highest number of homeless children, a product directly related to the 'Right to Work' laws which give employers the right to keep the workforce intimidated and underpaid.

The study by the National Center on Family Homelessness in Newton Centre, Mass., ranks Texas at the bottom of a state-by-state report card on child homelessness.

Texas had 337,105 homeless children as of 2006, including Hurricane Katrina evacuees, according to the report.

Ellen Bassuk, president of the National Center on Family Homelessness, said Texas lacks long-term planning to aid them.

"Homeless children are invisible. You don't see them. You don't see them walking around the streets. People don't talk about them," she said.

The report did not indicate how North Texas by itself shapes up on child homelessness.

But local experts say the numbers have risen because of the economy. A 2008 count found that there were 1,273 homeless children on any given night in Dallas County, and officials expect that figure to rise due to job losses and foreclosures.

Area schools already have reported dramatic increases in the number of homeless students.

"Women and children are the fastest growing population of homeless nationally and in the Dallas area," said Mike Faenza, president and chief executive officer of the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. He said the agency has a subcommittee working on a plan to address the issue.

Some local shelters also have seen more homeless families in recent months.

Even wingers can't say that children have earned their sufferings. When they are deprived of care, of education, and of stability, though, the whole society suffers as well.

We are at the end of eight years of the most reckless maltreatment of our working people that has occurred since feudalism. We have a lot of losses - but the children's is the worst.

The adults are back in charge. We never can tolerate this destruction of society, of viable working conditions, again. It is not enough to hope; we have to work for this rational government to succeed, and continue to keep the controls set for public interest policies.