We've all been reading stories about people hurt by the current financial crisis. Now stories are appearing specifically about children who will be hurt by homelessness. The first story I saw was Tidal wave of homeless students hits schools on MSNBC.org on March 2. We're also seeing homelessness portrayed in a more sympathetic light. Edward Wasserman's editorial in the Palm Beach Post on March 17 said "the new poor ... played by the rules, worked hard and consumed hard, kept up their end of the American bargain, and suffered an unreasonable and unjust fate."

I think the number of beds available for homeless children in PBC is under 100 and the number of homeless children is closer to 800. As the financial crisis continues we may see the number of homeless children increasing from 800 to 4000 or more. We won't be building beds fast enough, so it seems to me to be of immense importance that we do whatever we can to mitigate this crisis. I think our story for Family Promise is more compelling. And we have a stronger argument for drawing faith communities into partnering with service providers. It seems to me that we should each become stronger in our commitment and we should develop new ways to collaborate. This is being discussed in Family Promise of South Palm Beach County and in Family Promise of North-Central PBC.

I've been developing my thoughts at OurBetterAngels.info and here's my list of Helping Organizations who might want to work with us.

You may know that William Laney, a homeless man who wrote his story as a book called "Homeless Isn't Hopeless" was in PBC last week. He attended a meeting of the Clergy Association of Boca Raton, visited Westgate Tabernacle Church, and was interviewed on Briny Breezes BBC8-TV station. Here's his BBC8 interview on YouTube in four parts: Part I , Part II , Part III , Part IV .

Material I've been gathering on the bigger picture of homelessness is available with this text at: www.belovedcommunity.info/issues/homeless/resources/newview.htm

I can't do this; no single one of us can. But we may be able to do a lot by cooperating. Please give your thoughts on how we respond to this crisis to Carl House or to Kathy Perry , Ellen St. John , or to Gibbie Nauman .