The Asheville Citizen-Times published the first of a several part special report on youth and family homelessness in Buncombe County. Here’s an excerpt from the June 22 article:
One in five American children nationally is now living in poverty, giving the United States the highest child poverty rate of any developed nation except for Romania.
North Carolina has slowly climbed to the top of this national trend, consistently ranked as one of the 10 states with the highest population of homeless children in the nation.
At the center of most political and funding debates surrounding homelessness is the image of out-of-work single mothers, disabled veterans and mentally ill or drug-addicted adults. They eventually lead to the exchange of phrases such as “personal responsibility” and “entitlement.”
Children are rarely the face of that debate, though they have the most to lose from a life without stable housing.
“These families are unknown, unheard, unseen,” Buncombe County Schools homelessness coordinator Luke Heller said. “They’re invisible. How do you advocate for children who are politically invisible? You can’t. Especially if we don’t call them homeless.”
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.