Treatment of Homeless Kids : Texas is DEAD LAST

This map shows state rankings on the issue of homeless children. Click on image to enlarge. For an interactive version, go here.

In the grand tradition:
Texas is dead last in its treatment of homeless children

By Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / July 6, 2009

Texas is one of those states like Mississippi that tends to rank up near the top in things that are bad, and way near the bottom in things that are are good, especially concerning things that take money to fix. Texas has a governor, Rick Perry, who is now leading a crusade against taxes to get reelected, with predictable results on the neediest citizens.

Now Texas has done it again by ranking DEAD LAST among all fifty states in how Texas treats its homeless children. Children cost money to house and feed, and of course they can’t vote. Go here to see the report card explaining how all the states rank:

To get the details for Texas, go here for either an executive summary or a more detailed report:

Here are some lowlights of the report on child homelessness in Texas:

Minimum wage: $6.55
Average wage for renters: $14.94
Hourly wage needed to rent a 2 bedroom apartment: $15.02

High school graduation rate for homeless children — 25%

under 6 years of age = 141,584
Grades K-8, enrolled = 164,086
Grades 9-12, enrolled = 31,484
Total = 337,105

Total housing units available for homeless families. 3,694
Extent of child homelessness. Rank: # 49
Child well-being. Rank: # 44
Risk for child homelessness # 50
State policy and planning: Inadequate
Overall rank. #50 (50 is worst)

Percent of uninsured children: 21.8%
Funds allocated to schools for education of homeless children: $16

The Rag Blog

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5 Responses to Treatment of Homeless Kids : Texas is DEAD LAST

  1. Anonymous says:

    Want to really fix the problem (and the demand for WIC, CHIP, TANF, affordable housing, Etc.) STOP LETTING PEOPLE HAVE CHILDREN WHO CANNOT AFFORD THEM AND/OR CANNOT RAISE THEM PROPERLY! You need a license to drive a car but any idiot can have a child.

    Depending on the racial composition, somewhere between 40 and 75% of births are ILLIGITIMATE and paid by WELFARE.

    Where do you think these homeless kids come from? Not from two parent homes where there are educated mom’s and dad’s. How long do we sit back and let the problem grow? How long do we subsidize the problem with welfare? When do we begin to get proactive? HELLO! Everyone is crying about expanding CHIP (children’s health insurance program) – WE SHOULD BE TRYING TO REDUCE THE PROGRAM AND DEMAND. The goal shouldn’t be to dump the problem on the taxpayer it should be to have parents paying for their own childrens healthcare.

    Stop trying to fix the symptom and go after the cause – like in medicine; it’s the only way to get a TRUE cure.

  2. Anonymous says:

    So poor people should not be able to have children? Then who would clean the toilets in the public restrooms for the children of heartless bourgeois pigs when they grow up?

  3. Leslie C. says:

    Golly–All these “Anonymouses”!

    Hey, Anonymous(2), I love the crack about “heartless bourgeois pigs”–but let’s give Anonymous(1) a break, shall we? Maybe he/she is a regular overtaxed working person who has succumbed to the persuasion (racist brainwashing?) of the “tax party” crowd.

    (S)he is absolutely correct on one point: we need to “go after the cause”! In other words, overthrow the profit system with socialist revolution.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Yes I too like the ‘heartless’ crack, the typical stale comeback when the truth doesn’t align with your beliefs. Hey, I want to do good things with YOUR money and if you don’t agree, you are HEARTLESS and RACIST.

    Yea and those ‘tax party’ folks, how dare they disagree with our great leaders vision. 11 Trillion in the hole and counting (over 1 Trillion per year deeper) and ‘plans’ for Trillions more. After he creates his ‘dependent’ society, taxing all the productive people into poverty and borrowing all we can get from China, then who do we depend on.

    Yes, let’s overthrow that profit system that has given America the highest standard of living on the planet and adopt a socialist system. It worked out real well for the Soviets. Better yet, let’s become a fundimentalist Muslim led country, then things will be fair, like in Iran.

    Anon 1 has it right, we can’t keep condoning the pumping out of taxpayer funded, welfare babies to single mothers. The ‘sperm donors’ er, proud fathers, run from -or- deny their responsibility. The product of these ‘booty calls’ typically live in poverty and are more likely to be abused. They are failing in our schools and usually fall into the family businesses: Welfare and Prison. We will never be a great society until we have great nuclear families and morals. Regrettably we are going backward.

    WHERE’S PLANNED PARENTHOOD, RESPONSIBILITY AND BIRTH CONTROL?

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