Research shows that the turmoil of homelessness often hinders children’s ability to socialize and learn. Many are plagued by hunger, exhaustion, abuse and insecurity. They have a hard time performing at grade level and are about 50 percent less likely to graduate from high school than their peers.

“Homeless children are confronted daily by extremely stressful and traumatic experiences that have profound effects on their cognitive development and ability to learn,” said Ellen Bassuk, a Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor and president of the nonprofit National Center on Family Homelessness . “They tend to have high rates of developmental delays, learning difficulties and emotional problems as a product of precarious living situations and extreme poverty.”

The PBC School District makes special effort to help homeless children, but it does not provide emergency or transitional shelter. The non-profits who help the homeless in PBC have capacity to provide beds for fewer than 100 of the 800 children and the 800 may soon be 2000 children homeless on an average night in PBC. The National Center on Family Homelessness estimates that one out of every 50 children in America go to sleep without a home of their own each year. That's 1.5 million children in America and it translates to 6450 children in Palm Beach County (because we are .43% of the U.S. population).

Our Better Angels is a proposed effort to bring attention and remedy to this very serious impending problem. We intend to urge collaboration among service providers and faith communities, sharing information, documentation and resources for the purpose of protecting our children and our future.

This concern was discussed in a recent Board meeting by Family Promise of South Palm Beach County. Click here for a list of PBC organizations that might work with us on this . We also have a list of 716 PBC people with e-mail addresses who are concerned with homelessness or with social justice, so we could begin a public awareness & promotion effort using tasteful e-mails. And we have directory of 1021 faith communities who represent potential for greater effort.

The pages listed below provide additional information on this local and national crisis.