60 Minutes aired a program this weekend shedding light on one of the little-discussed but heartbreaking aspects of the country’s persistent economic woes: an epidemic of homeless schoolchildren. The subject of the program was Seminole County, Fla., a county with 1,100 homeless students.
Among the most staggering numbers highlighted during the program was “of all the families without shelter in America, one third are in Florida.”
The state’s foreclosure crisis, coupled with high unemployment and austere budget cuts, has resulted in countless homeless families in Florida living out of their cars — if they have them, 60 Minutes explains. Many families with small children are left hoping for a job or charity before food runs out. Caught in the crosshairs of this epidemic, the program showed, have been young schoolchildren.
According to this year’s KIDS COUNT data, Florida was “the state with the 2nd highest percent of children impacted by foreclosure since 2007.”
The account of a handful of young children had a persistent theme: Most homeless families in the state had run out of options. Many saw their unemployment benefits dry up, and public services were too scarce and maxed-out to provide any help.