by Sandra Gillhouse

Created on: January 28, 2010

Homelessness appears to be epidemic in America these days. It no longer singles out the careless, the alcoholic, the throw away teen, or the drug abuser. The latest polls on poverty has shown Lawyers, salesmen, autoworkers, even bankers finding themselves suddenly displaced from their homes. But for me the worst case scenario is a homeless woman expecting a child.

According to recent statistics one in six homeless women are pregnant or will become pregnant during their poverty. Families without a roof over their heads living in a dilapidated van, or camping in a free park still have the same daily needs as the rest of us. Hygiene, hunger, and cold. But when you are pregnant the dilemmas triple. Beginning with improper nutrition and reduced prenatal care both of which often leads to babies born with low birth weight, and a whole array of health related issues.

Social service don’t offer resources to reduce the stress instead many times they can be perceived as a threat rather than an aid. Especially when they show up on the scene after a birth and question the welfare of the newborn. They may even remove the child to a foster home until an acceptable home situation can be provided. However, they never seem to  have the means to contribute to those ends for a family to be rightfully reunited with their child. The best they can do is hand out useless pamphlets and direct them to job searches.

Parents are driven to extreme measures to find ways to simple basic human needs. Bathing in fountains, or public restrooms. Since the so called job resources are filled to capacity. With long fruitless lines the only other choice they have is to  spend their hours on a street corner just to gather enough for one solid meal.

Something must be done to counter the societies disease of late.  If we continue to ignore the plight of homeless families in our country, we will soon find our dismal health care system filled to the brim with a whole generation of peoples born from the health defects of a homeless culture.

How embarrassed we must be to see that our children were not fortunate enough to be cared for. How completely and utterly ashamed we must become to finally say this is unacceptable. It is not the American dream anymore to have a successful business and homes filled with splendor. No, the new dream is a simple one. The dream of healthful living amongst us being purely happy to have our three meals a day and a roof over our heads for everyone. America has been humbled, but together we can see to it that she recover and show the world that we will not let the children suffer the failures of economy.

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