As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, they are sleeping in alleys, or under bridges, or in the backs of automobiles. They are huddled in shelters, motel rooms or a friend's garage.
Toddlers living with a parent or teenagers on the run, they are Sonoma County's homeless kids.
No one knows their exact number. In January, a point-in-time survey counted 597 homeless youngsters under 18 years old, but experts agree the actual number is much higher.
No one knows the precise figure because a one-day survey can't find all the children living on the street, bouncing from one place to another, and a single snapshot can't identify the youngsters who move in and out of homelessness. (The January survey counted 4,539 homeless people in Sonoma County and concluded there are 12,565 people who are homeless at some time during the year.)
After a tough year, we know, too, that a survey conducted in January can't tell us how many more lives have been turned upside down by another 11 months of foreclosures and layoffs.
"There's a lot of people in really serious trouble right now," said Georgia Berland, executive officer of the Sonoma County Task Force on the Homeless.
Jenny Abramson, coordinator of the Continuum of Care Planning Group and the person who directed the homeless census, told me there "might be as many as 2,000" youngsters surviving without the physical and emotional security most of us take for granted.
A new national survey — "America's Youngest Outcasts" — reported last week that the number of American kids who are homeless increased by 38percent between 2008 and 2011. That translates into 1.6 million homeless children.
The findings come from the National Center on Family Homelessness, where President Ellen Bassuk told USA Today, "This is an absurdly high number."
Think about it: If you're a homeless child, your family is in turmoil. You're often cold and wet. You don't get enough sleep or enough to eat. You're more likely to be sick or injured or the victim of a crime. You bounce from school to school, unable to maintain your studies — or friendships.
According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Institute, homeless youngsters are twice as likely to be sick, twice as likely to be hungry, twice as likely to have to repeat a grade in school. Half experience anxiety, depression and withdrawal.
You don't need to be a social worker to understand that homeless children are less likely to find success.
This is what happens when millions of wage earners can't find work — which means they can't pay the rent or make the house payment.
Matt Martin, executive director of the service provider Social Advocates for Youth, says economic stresses also exacerbate cycles of abuse within families.
He talks about young people who choose to live in sub-freezing temperatures rather than endure the problems at home.
Some, he said, take drugs "to stave off the cold and to stave off the hunger."
"No kid 5, 6, 7 or 8 says
he wants to grow up to be
homeless," Martin said. "...What happens? Life happens."
When government revenues decline and politicians seek scapegoats, programs that support shelters and other kinds of affordable housing become easy targets.
A year ago, the Task Force on the Homeless received $364,000 in federal aid to provide emergency shelter for homeless families. "It was," Berland recounted, "a literal life saver, the true bottom of the safety net."
This year, the federal government will provide only $68,000 in emergency shelter funds.
"People think there's a safety net out there," Berland said, "In reality, the safety net has been shredded."
"As a culture, as a society, we're not doing the things we could do — that we can do," said John Records, executive director of the Committee on the Shelterless in Petaluma. COTS, which provides shelter for 2,000 people each year, estimates demand has increased by 30 percent in the past two years.
In honor of the season, we might quote Ebenezer Scrooge, "Have they no refuge or resource?"
The answer in too many cases is, no, they don't.
In Sonoma County, government, nonprofits and religious groups have worked hard at finding housing and other services for people who are homeless or otherwise living in tough situations.
But no one predicted a recession that would devastate families that never expected to be hungry or homeless.
And no one expected the federal and state governments to abdicate their responsibilities to the less fortunate.
Next weekend, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, who was born in a stable because Joseph and Mary had nowhere else to go. Jesus would later say, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."
We are left with the question: How do political leaders who advertise their religious beliefs look the other way when kids are living on the street?
Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at golispd@gmail.com.
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