A third of the homeless in my county are children! [View All]

[Cleita]

Third of homeless in San Luis Obispo County are under 21

By Nathan Welton

A third of San Luis Obispo County's 2,400 homeless people are under age 21, and more than a fifth aren't yet out of junior high school.

Those are some preliminary results of a unique project conducted last fall in which dozens of volunteers counted people living in encampments, campers and shelters countywide.

More data will surface next month, and the numbers are released as funding shortfalls for homeless services threaten local shelters.

"A number of communities think they don't have any homeless because people tend to define homeless people as those they see on the street," said county Supervisor Jim Patterson. "But people will be blown away to see how many children there are."

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/14220492.htm

I wonder how these stats compare proportionately nationwide? With all the brouhaha wedge issues that are being thrown at Congress and us the electorate by the White House, why isn't anyone talking about this? I think this needs to be a big issue in the upcoming elections.