Mother's Day PBS Attention to Homeless Moms

Another long shot, even more challenging than our CITGO Fueling Good win last November: to get our documentary on the edge: Family Homelessness in America shown on PBS affiliates across the country for Mother's Day. Another long shot, another success for HEAR US supporters!

By surprise (OK, I confess to being slightly skeptical of our PBS chances), I saw a Facebook message on our on the edge page saying "I caught the documentary on PBS tonight - thank you. Thank you for bringing awareness to the plight of women and their families as they face the reality of homelessness. I'll be sure to share!" from Cynthia.


What?!! Really? So I did a quick Google search of "on the edge: Family Homelessness in America, PBS" and wahoo! Lots of stations are running it, from Alaska to New Hampshire and points in-between. 


Should I be surprised? Nope, but I was. I keep forgetting the power of social media and how dedicated the supportive band of HEAR US believers are. Besides winning several prestigious film festivals, OTE received a great review from the American Library Association.


If your station, as did WTTW-11 in Chicago, says they're not members of NETA (the PBS-pipeline for this film) but they're willing to review the film, let me know and I'll send one out right away! 


Getting these stories out to as many people as possible will be one significant way to change stereotypes about homelessness. My friend and film-guru director, Laura Vazquez, professor at Northern Illinois University, and I know these 7 women's stories have unlimited power to open minds and hearts. It's just a matter of getting in front of eyeballs. That's where you can help! 


The DVD, a slightly re-formatted version of our original 2010 release, includes the 58-min. closed-captioned feature,  a 15-min. segment where Columbia University MSW students and their professor Markus Redding discuss the film. A 4-min. and 8-min. trailer are included for those shorter screen times, plus the 4-min. trailer from the first HEAR US hit, My Own Four Walls. All of this for a modest $30+s/h (order form). As a bonus, all proceeds from the film benefit HEAR US.


Laura often chides me for the "spaghetti sticking on the wall" approach to homelessness awareness raising. Whatever. Getting these seven women's inspiring and courageous stories in front of as many audiences as possible does a real tribute to the invisible mothers across the land who teeter on the edge of homelessness. If flinging spaghetti onto the wall will help open eyes, then start the water boiling!

Homelessness Sucks 4 Kids

In my wildest dreams, I can't imagine what it would be like to be a homeless teen. I met "Mandy" yesterday who is homeless with her mom. They seem very close and say they're coping but, I dunno, really, spending any part of your early teen years homeless? Sucks doesn't begin to describe it.

They stay in a rotating-site shelter program that relies on volunteers from local faith communities, sleeping on floors of basements, halls, gyms and other religious facilities once a week at each location. It's far from perfect, but it's been the emergency housing model for dozens of communities for dozens of years (so much for "emergency"). 

Despite their best efforts to remain positive, moving forward from their situation will be more than challenging. Mom works, apparently a valuable employee, in a fast-food place not known for fat pay checks. Therein lies the rub....

Problem #1, mom earns about $1000 a month. DuPage County (IL) is one of the most affluent counties in the country. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates Illinois renters need to earn about $2900 a month to afford a 2-br unit at 30% of the household's monthly budget, an affordable rent.

Even fudging on affordability and squeezing into an efficiency unit (if she can find one), their income is far short of what's needed to get and maintain housing (the most basic part of escaping homelessness).

Problem #2, no car. DuPage happens to be a public transportation desert. Yeah, they have a few bus routes, but the routes are not geared for the 24/7 workday. And it means this family needs to be up and getting ready to leave their cozy single-pad-on-the-floor accommodations about 3:30 to get to work and school on time.

They have deliberately avoided owning a car which they rightly deem a huge budget-buster. One housing-assistance program they'd like to apply to almost requires a car because of the need to get to work, school and appointments.

Problem #3, they're a non-disabled family. That seems like a good thing. But it's not because hardly any post-homelessness subsidized housing is available for this segment of the population.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, is asinine about how they define homelessness--not considering as "homeless" families/youth who've lost housing and are living temporarily with others and/or staying in motels--so Congress has been tight-fisted about resources. Ergo, DuPage County organizations lack subsidized housing options for non-disabled homeless families. It's one reason why so many motels are now the housing of (non)choice for working low-income families. Decent motels in this county are $300+ a week, exceeding this family's total monthly income.

Problem #4, the shelter season winds down May 1-October, cutting the available "interim" beds from an inadequate 140 (3 sites) to a super-inadequate 65 (1 site).

This is going to complicate their lives enormously. I've been at the summer shelter sites. They turn away women, families, and men. When they're full, that's it. And the large, transportation-challenged county makes it nigh unto impossible to get to the very scattered sites. Yikes. One site is so far from mom's work that they're just not going to be able to go that night.

Problem # 5, it's not getting better anytime soon. I'm a great believer in miracles. But this is a stretch. Mom and Mandy are hopeful, willing to work hard and to take something less than ideal.

But at this income, without subsidized housing, they simply can't afford to live in DuPage County. Or most other suburban areas, or just about anywhere.

Sad Sub-Story
One of the sad sub-stories here is that the shelter, a respected organization that really tries to do the best they can with the resources available, does not support the need to pass HR 32, the Homeless Children and Youth Act. 

Maybe they've bought the argument that HUD's resources are inadequate for an expanded homeless census. Well, yeah, because HUD continues downplaying the numbers of people experiencing  homelessness. Congress hears that 630,000 or so people were tallied during the "point-in-time" count. That number is probably closer to 10% of the actual homeless population. But instead of fighting for more resources by aligning the definition of homeless to other federal definitions that better reflect homelessness, HUD sticks their collective head in the sand.

So kids like Mandy, and her mom, and hundreds of thousands of kids and adults get strangled in red tape because HUD doesn't count homelessness as it's happening. They're using old-fashioned definitions based on stereotypes which totally ignore the reality of homeless families and youth. I filmed this interview (4-min) of a family in a motel that gives a pretty good idea that staying in a motel is not a vacation.

Ironically, Republican Congresswoman Judy Biggert (13, IL) represents DuPage County. She introduced HR 32, a simple and sensible 2-page bill, that would make HUD improve their definition of homelessness. Biggert's been in Congress long enough to know how things work. She's championed several significant bills to help homeless kids. Sure, Congress will need to find more money to meet a 10-fold increase in numbers of homeless people. But what's the option? Ignoring it?

Seems to me that families like Mandy and her mom will either move forward or backwards. Forward means Mandy might get to worry about things like homework instead of homelessness. Backwards sucks.

Chicks, Children and Chump Change

Standing on the edge of the pond, I fell in and got stuck. 

Not into the water, but into a conversation with a bright 8-year-old girl, and I was really perplexed as to what to say next. Falling into the slimy water would have been easier.

We had been bird watching, respectfully "stalking" a sand hill crane couple and their 2 newborns. They were pecking their way from this scenic pond on the edge of the motel--the unofficial homeless shelter not far from the land of Mickey Mouse and friends. Since the area has no shelter, homeless families, if they can scrape together $200 or so a week, will shove their stuff in storage and squeeze into these boxy ill-equipped rooms, or into the even scuzzier and smaller rooms in the scads of struggling motels lining the highway.

"Mandy" and her mom and dad (note: 2 parents) have a tiny room on the first floor. Not a suite. A room. And to make ends meet, they've creatively and desperately decided to rent to "Chad," a disabled Viet Nam Navy vet who is happy for the "cheap" place to stay. Yeah, renting a room to a stranger when you've lost your place to live (Hurricane Katrina, Nashville floods, and foreclosure, the trifecta) is desperate.

So Mandy and I were gazing at the ducks, otter, turtles, and other critters and talking about the 2 little crane chicks. The conversation went something like this:

"Where do the birds live?"

Somewhere along the edge of the pond (I'm assuming loons and cranes might be similar, but I'm sure they're not, beside the point to an 8-year-old who's fortunately not a loon/crane expert.)

"What do they eat?"

They peck at little bugs in the grass, on the shore, and in the water near the edge.

"What if an alligator came along?" (in that inimitable tone of an 8-yo)

The parents would protect them. (me slipping, teetering...)

"How would they fight a big alligator?" (She astutely figured no way, Jose.) Splash.

Other birds would help. (Right.) Then I did the adult thing and changed the subject.

I pictured Mandy's stressed-out mom and dad fighting the alligator (predators abound in their lives, today it was the IRS that absconded with dad's tax refund to pay a student loan debt). I sure as hell knew that other than some of the ill-equipped families staying at the motel who would come out swinging flimsy sticks, no help was going to fight off the gator and rescue the chicks and the parents.

Mandy's family must come up with $200 a week to stay here. They've decided Chad is a mistake, but for now he's part of the equation. Both parents work in food service, a flagging industry at best, with irregular hours and skimpy tips. They pass the care of Mandy off like a baton in a race for survival, trying to maintain the confidence of parents that have it all under control. They snatch extra work hours if asked, to the point of exhaustion.

But the gators are circling. Their car needs expensive brake repairs. The IRS has honed into their bank accounts, squeezing blood from the turnips. Mandy wonders why they never have gone to Disney World, giving both parents guilt complexes that have them figuring out how to compensate their daughter for her lost childhood. Tensions abound--between the family and the interloper and between parents deprived of intimacy and peace of mind, however fleeting. Insurance? Nope. Safety net of family or friends? Nope.

Because this family has paid for the room themselves, they're not considered "homeless" by the bureaucracy that could offer (theoretically at least) housing assistance through HUD. This seemingly insignificant glitch is huge on several levels. Congress begrudgingly allocates chump change to what they think is the "manageable" homeless problem as reported by HUD--a "mere" 630,000 bedraggled men and women. Imagine them calling their congressman (something I encourage desperate homeless persons to do) and trying to explain they're homeless but not really homeless by HUD's standard. Confusing at the least. Damning is more like it.

Families in motels like Mandy's abound, not just in Mouseland but nationwide. They're gator bait. Nobody knows they're there. They're not counted by HUD as homeless. Congress is clueless. And those "advocacy" groups working against us are, well, gators hiding in the weeds.

We're trying to help. HR 32, the Homeless Children and Youth Act, would change the way HUD defines (and eventually helps) homeless families and youth. But it's gotta pass first. Here's more about it and a simple way to get your congressperson on board.


In the meantime, come down with me and grab a big stick. This is a fight worth fighting even if our opponents have sharp teeth and lethal tails.

Picture telling Mandy that she, her parents, and scores like them are doomed.

In a adaptation of Mollie Ivins, one of my favorite hell-raising s-heroes' techniques,  banging on pots and pans, let's grab pitchforks, baseball bats and brooms and beat these alligators in every way we can to save the vulnerable chicks.Then fish me out of the pond, will ya?

Immediate Concerns: All Relative

They said nothing about being on vacation in this land of Disney. The couple with 2 young girls asked to see the room that rents for $179 a week (and $100 deposit), and when they returned the key they asked about Florida's perennial unwanted visitor, roaches. 

The desk clerk assured them these little varmints have no room in this inn. That seemed to assuage the couple and they took the room for a week, maybe more, starting the next day when their time is up in their current long-term-suite abode.

I wanted to stop them and ask them their story--why are they living in a motel--but it's too early for that kind of boldness, even for me. Besides, they seemed stressed. 

Sitting in the otherwise pleasant, but worn, motel lobby, I was mentally picking out the real tourists from the hard-time customers. I watched as groceries were toted in--not the snack food of vacationers but rather the microwavable and hot-plate-able versions to feed a family. Expensive, especially if they had to shop at the nearby 7-11 or Walgreen's. Nutrition goes out the window. Ramen noodles and cereal, not fresh fruits and veggies.

To dispel the myth about "vacationing" families not deserving to be acknowledged as "homeless," let me describe the living conditions of one family that lived here 4 brutally long years. They started out in a room with a king bed, mom, dad and their 9-month old boy. Having lost their place to live when the real estate and job bubble splattered, a friend told them about this extended stay place that cut you a deal on the rent, a mere $179 a week, including (limited) housekeeping and utilities.

With no option besides the streets, the family put their stuff in storage, believing that the day would soon come when they could reclaim their lives and their belongings. The $180 a month storage fee made sense in the beginning of their homeless-honeymoon, but soon this budget-busting expense was axed in lieu of weekly rent. Management padlocked their unit and eventually sold and/or tossed their stuff...important documents, pictures, baby mementos, wedding gifts...gone.

Their room at first was just a room, with the king-sized bed hogging most of the space. With just the 2 of them, and other than not having room for their baby to move around, they managed. He worked off-and-on, she cared for the baby. But the relative peace of this arrangement was shattered about one year into their stay.

His mother, sister and her 2 girls lost their place to live. No help available from family or friends, no Plan B, and the additional complication--one of the girls has cerebral palsy and epilepsy. So the couple asked for a slightly larger room and invited their family to join them.

1960s vintage hot plate

Lest anyone think their new room was one of those fairly spacious suites--2-bedroom, small living room, with a kitchen, wrong. It was the size of an average decent motel room with a half-wall divider making an imaginary 2nd room. No kitchen. The dresser held the hot plate and coffee maker. A tiny microwave sat nearby. They requested and received a slightly larger than dorm-sized refrigerator. 

Their space was ever-so-slightly larger than my modest 27' motorhome--a space for one. They had 8, including 4 adults, which bathroom logistics alone would be a nightmare. Three years. 

No amount of imagination on my part could perceive the stress. When I asked the beleaguered mother what was the worst part, she spewed a list of understandable realities:

• no privacy, 
• no room to move around, being afraid to wander outside because of drug/prostitution trade using the motel, 
• no neighborly socializing because she didn't know who was in on the nefarious activities, 
• not being able to have her toddler play in the sand-filled playground because feral cats used it for a litter box, 
• no place to cook a decent meal except for an extremely limited menu routine that could be prepared in their cramped quarters, 
• worrying about her toddler reaching up and grabbing the hot plate,
• washing dishes in the same place they washed their bodies, and 
• fearing that one of the fairly regular drug raids would turn ugly and inadvertently involve their extended family. 

She was beyond shame, and she knew the overwhelmed authorities would overlook their conditions because they were at least trying to care for themselves.

I asked her what was good. She just as quickly responded: 

• we were together (an understatement!), 
• we weren't on the streets (in a resort town that cares more about their famous mouse than the needs of people), 
• we were able to help our family, and the school was wonderful for her sister-in-law's two girls. She gushed about how special the school staff made the girls feel. They had everything they needed to be like the housed-kids. Christmas brought an avalanche of gifts. 

She also pointed out that the unusually kind motel manager works with his customers (those who abide by the basic standard of respect for people and property). He cuts a little slack on late rent when times are rough, though expecting payback eventually. He's worked with local compassionate church-goers to set up a small food pantry and he's reached into his pocket to help when nothing else is available, as he recently did for the woman released from the hospital with wounds but no clean bandages. 

From all accounts, these families are among...well, an unknown number experiencing some version of this nomadic life. Amazingly, we have no idea how many families and single adults are in this motel-bound plight. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, doesn't consider  people in motels unless their money was used to house them. In most cases it's not. HUD doesn't report these people as homeless to Congress who set a meager dollar amount based on HUD's numbers. HUD's thinking--they're not as bad off as those on the streets or those in shelters.

I challenge that urban-based, clueless Beltway thinking. 

Being a highly mobile, inadequately sheltered, resource-challenged, largely invisible "household" is as vulnerable as many other homeless persons/families. Making no attempt to quantify this number, in fact vehemently fighting against aligning the HUD definition of homelessness with other federal agencies (that rightfully include households in motels as "homeless"), HUD does a huge disservice, especially when reporting the homeless census for Congress. Their paltry 600,000 tallied in the point-in-time count has no sense of urgency. Nor does it hold any sense of reality.

A serious move is afoot to align HUD's definition of homelessness with reality. A bipartisan bill, HR 32, The Homeless Children and Youth Act, in 2 very simple pages, does away with scads of complications surrounding HUD's confusing requirements. Yes, this will mean more people will be counted as homeless. No, communities will not be forced to serve families and youth. It will be their choice.

I firmly believe that if Congress doesn't get a clue about the alarming sense of homelessness, particularly for families and youth on their own, they will never ante up resources to meet the need. Eventually, the young ones, like the little girl on the left, will grow up, some to become homeless adults, and maybe then they'll count. Better late than never....

If you're interested in helping get this legislation passed, check our campaign's website, http://helphomelesskidsnow.org, for more info.

HUD Homeless Policies = Child Abuse and Neglect

Maybe I've stared at too many faces of little ones through the eyes of my cameras.

Maybe I've sat on the edge of lumpy mattresses in crappy motel rooms, surrounded by the squalor that comes from too many people crammed into too small space for too many desperate nights listening to heartbreaking sagas.

Maybe I've shared too many WalMart parking lots with too many families who find safety in the security cameras as they cuddle together for warmth in their cars.

Maybe I've talked to too many youth, some with another generation in tow, who ask me what should they do, where can they find a safe way to escape life on the streets.

Maybe I've grown impatient with waiting...for lawmakers and bureaucrats to wake up--or quit denying--the abysmal dearth of housing assistance (much less affordable and safe options) and other vital safety net programs. (Reminder, the US offers about $144 Billion in home-owner housing subsidies compared to a measly $34 billion housing assistance.)

Maybe I'm carrying around guilt knowing that I was complicit in this homeless family and youth debacle, not intentionally, but by default, for my years running shelters that pretty well ignored the needs of our future--the children and youth, unwitting products of their pathetic upbringing, who become adults, productive or not.

Maybe...but I can no longer be part of the silent--or not-loud-enough--conspiracy.

For years, this nation has blatantly ignored the dire peril that millions of families and youth find themselves in year after year. We had to fight to remove barriers to school for kids without homes (kids now numbering 1 million). We have, for years, been fighting with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the often-hapless agency charged with providing decent affordable housing and homelessness assistance, about including children and youth in their focus (as inadequate as it is).

HUD's newest regulations forcing homeless families/youth to PROVE their homelessness (as if people are clamoring to get into shelters??!) are a horrendous burden to families/youth and shelter staff. Check out this 3-min. video explaining the latest absurdity.

The few groups that continually side with HUD, likely out of fear that the slice of the tiny pie that funds their worthy efforts will get decimated, sadly spread fear and deception like Homeland Security--painting the scene of evil resource depleters coming after what amounts the crumbs from the federal budget table. (Here's a rebuttal to their argument. pdf)

And my friend Barbara Duffield offers these reminders:

a) HR 32 does not mandate that kids identified through four programs are served; it simply makes them eligible and allows communities to make assessments of who is most in need at the moment; b) doubled-up and motel kids are among the most vulnerable, and HUD’s regulations make it impossible for them to be served; today’s homeless kids are tomorrow’s homeless adults

Someone explain to me: when have the feds ever given money to a legitimate cause when advocates haven't fought for it? It sure hasn't been HUD's homelessness assistance programs. I know. I've been in this work too long. Programs serving families--and even worse for youth-- are few and too far between. And HUD makes it seem like families and youth either don't exist or they don't count, I'm not sure.

Where is the outcry about the slash-and-burn of our nation's housing budget (read this illuminating and easy-to-comprehend report, pdf)? 

Having otherwise decent human beings arguing against pulling out all stops to help this most vulnerable and ignored segment of the homeless population--a segment that dwarfs the single adults so disparagingly labeled "chronic" as in a disease--well, it's either a lack of conscience or a lack of awareness of the dire conditions facing families and youth.

In an ongoing effort to convey the desperate situation facing families and youth, a panel of experts--homeless children and youth who know the perils of living without a home and without shelter--addressed Members of Congress in mid-December. Their compelling and heartbreaking stories illustrated beyond a doubt the level of suffering common to families/youth in motels, doubled-up with others, or in other non-HUD-homeless states.  

But what happened? The so-called homeless advocates that have vehemently opposed bringing HUD's definition in sync with other federal definitions ratcheted up their rhetoric dismissing the suffering of the kids in the various non-HUD states of homelessness. Fortunately, the subcommittee headed by homeless kid champion Judy Biggert (R-IL, my congresswoman) passed HR 32, The Homeless Children and Youth Act, which now heads to full committee.

And about the same time, at a national conference of homelessness service providers, the anti-HR 32 rhetoric spewed.

I will not apologize for hammering hard on this issue. Nor will my stalwart band of colleagues (with a growing network of agencies) working hard to get Congress, HUD and the nation to acknowledge--and address--what boils down to federally-sanctioned child neglect.

If we "can't afford" to go all-out to help those in all kinds of homeless situations, if we (from our positions of relative comfort) deem some homelessness tolerable, if we don't demand that resources be immediately and adequately marshaled for the millions of precarious and/or un-housed people in this country, than I'd say we're suffering from a severe and unconscionable lack of compassion.

My conscience pushes me to do everything possible to help. What about yours?

• Contact your member of Congress if she/he is on the House Financial Services Committee (view committee list)
• Urge their support of HR 32. Sample letters here.
• Challenge nay-sayers who insist this nation cannot care for our homeless kids.
• Do something to help.

At least you'll be able to look at kids like this with a clear conscience. 

Tired of the BS from 'Advocates'

Photo (C) Pat Van Doren

I worry that things are so screwy that we'll "eat our young" as we all scramble for a piece of the dwindling, vulnerable federal human services pie. It seems that a group of so-called advocates and unenlightened legislators are poised to do just that--"eat" homeless kids by depriving the majority of them of assistance otherwise available for homeless kids staying in shelters.

Gosh, this homeless definition issue is getting so drawn out that it makes me shake my head in wonderment. I dug through my email trash to look at what the young-eaters give for reasons to oppose forcing Congress to help more homeless kids. Shameful. I'll let their words speak for this atrocious form of advocacy.

If HR 32 (The Homeless Children and Youth Act) were enacted, children who are now defined as homeless, including those who are fleeing domestic violence, living in dangerous situations, or literally sleeping outside, would be forced to compete for scarce resources with millions more who have the advantage of a more stable apartment or house to sleep in every night.

As NAEHCY Policy Director Barbara so adamantly points out, "Defining a problem by the funding currently available to address it is nonsensical. Congress needs to know who and how many people are without housing in order to devise effective solutions.  A narrow definition of homelessness does nothing to reduce the number of people living without their own homes. It simply gives policymakers an unrealistic view of the scope of the problem.

I'd be even more caustic. Continuing a failed policy of counting homeless people, spending money and volunteer/staff time each year to do so, to produce the absolutely bogus AHAR (Annual Homeless Assessment Report...or the capital of Ahar County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran) is irrational and unconscionable. Furthermore, the last thing we need to do is confuse Congress on matters of poverty.

... HR 32, if enacted, would expand the definition of homelessness to include an additional 2,351,762 low-income housed children each year, who, although their housing may be poor, are not literally homeless (my underline).  

 The esteemed Barbara Duffield rebuts, "H.R. 32, will not require communities to spend HUD funding on doubled-up and motel families and youth. It simply gives them the flexibility to do so when these families and youth need HUD homeless services...Vulnerability determinations must be done on a local, individual basis, after gathering as many facts as possible. Congress is not in a position to decide the relative vulnerability of individual children and adults in communities across the county."

My good friend Pat LaMarche took a swing at this issue in her Christmas HufPo column following the testimony of 6 supremely courageous and articulate kids who testified to Congress about the agony of homelessness (the non-HUD kind). She gets it. She ran a shelter for a few years.

And I'd add that the time and energy we've spent on this issue is time wasted. Not so much for policy-wonks but for families and youth being excluded from possibly getting emergency assistance. How can you look a kid or a desperate parent in the face and say they're not homeless enough...when they are as homeless as the next person, and possibly suffering abuse, among other common experiences? Not "literally homeless"? That reference pushes me over the edge. When do we get to splitting hairs over who's homeless, more homeless, most homeless? I can't even go there. Nor should they.

Had I not just witnessed the debacle between The Susan G. Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood, I'd think our advocacy wars were unusual. In case you missed it, here's the powerful and poignant response on this life-threatening issue as courageously and vociferously offered by Linda, a woman whose own experience with breast cancer gives her the right to weigh in, which she did. Catch her last line. 

I'll be looking for an outraged parent or kid who is willing to go on record like Linda did about the atrocious behavior of "advocates" and public officials that think our pathetic level of assistance directed to the crisis of homelessness is enough. But until then, I'll close with some thoughts of my own...

To pretend that you have any comprehension of the anguish, agony and hopelessness of homelessness is absolute bull shit. To shy away from a united and forceful campaign to begin to relieve millions of people in this country from the sufferings of homelessness makes me disregard your efforts entirely.

If you wish to act upon this outrage, check the HEAR US website, Compassion Epidemic, Hot Alert!

Counting Homeless Kids--Do They Count?

In a couple nights countless teams of volunteers and staff across the country will fan out and count the uncountable--homeless adults and kids for HUD's annual "Point in Time" count. It's a gallant effort. But too bad it's a misguided one.

3 sisters in Reno, NV bemoan their plight

You see, and this is where it gets confusing, the definition of "homelessness" is different depending on the federal department using it. And HUD, the primary source of funding to address homelessness (albeit inadequately), has a very narrow, inaccurate definition that excludes lots of kids and families.

Why does this seemingly obscure issue rate a mention? Well, since the beginning of the federal McKinney (now McKinney-Vento) homeless programs in 1987, Congress--the body that decides funding for agencies--has been, well, confused. I suspect they think all homeless people are, well, bums.

Now I'll be the first to dispel the myths about homeless adults, having run shelters for 15 years. Homeless adults need and deserve all kinds of help. It's not--nor should it be--"us vs. them" when it comes to funding. But the level at which families and kids have been excluded is obscene.

Camping in NW Oregon. 3 girls and parents.

Families, and youth on their own, often need to be "creative" when it comes to finding a roof over their heads. Shelters, if their community has any, are typically full. Doubling up with others, couch surfing, motels, and campgrounds become stop-gap precarious solutions. I've seen families in tents on the edge of town, in campgrounds (freezing with no access to heat), in vans and cars, and in no-tell motels that wouldn't be appropriate for anyone, much less kids. (Watch CBS 60 Minutes segment on families living in cars.)

Clearly, Congress, federal (state and local) bureaucrats and policymakers just don't get it. Which is why some of us worked hard to facilitate a Congressional hearing on homeless kids by courageous homeless kids. (See it)

 Here's something people don't realize about numbers:

• Schools have identified (2009-10 school year) nearly 1 million students without homes. (This is probably 1/2 of the actual homeless student population--they're hard to identify.)
• That doesn't include an estimated 2-3 million youth not in school (and not with parent/guardian)
• Nor does it include younger siblings (infants-5 year old), a number that could easily hit 1 million.

Do the math. Probably something near 6 million KIDS.

So, when HUD reports a mere 650,000 or so homeless people counted in these PIT tallies, and Congress responds in kind with chump change for homeless programs, well, it's infuriating. And it's wrong. Which is why I got a little, umm, testy when being interviewed on CNN last month.

An effort is afoot in Congress to change the definition. Yep, it will increase the numbers. But at least we won't continue to be stumbling in the dark, ignoring reality.

And HEAR US is working with a small group of people to shine a LED spotlight on the ultra-ignored segment of the homeless population, homeless infants and toddlers. Littlest Nomads we call them.

Seems to me that it's time to have a big ol' camp out in front of the Capitol. It will make it easier to count the growing number of people without homes. Then what will the excuse be?