Penalizing the Helpers

Among all the tactics used to make war on people experiencing homelessness, one of the most insidious is penalizing their allies. A while back, we published a post titled “Helping the Homeless: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” and, more recently, one called “People Who...

The Starfish Conundrum

There are many versions of the starfish story. Here is one. A man walking along a shore covered with washed-up, dying starfish notices a boy throwing them back into the ocean, one by one. The man says to the boy that there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of...

School-Age Kids Experiencing Homelessness

Last week, House the Homeless noted that, across America, some 3% of public school students are experiencing homelessness. Sometimes it seems like we mainly hear about happenings in New York and California, because they are the big states representing the East Coast...

For Children and Youth, a Couch Is Not a Home

The number of public school students experiencing homelessness has doubled since the recession, over a number that was already too large. Now, an estimated 3% of public school kids are homeless, which is of course an average. Depending on the city and state, it varies...