The New Face of Homelessness

2009 is off to an interesting year. One thing is for certain, we all can't wait for the economy to turn. Who knows how long that will be.

In recent months we've noticed a change in the needs of our program feeding homeless children. I've mentioned, there are over 11,000 elementary age children in Orange County, CA who are homeless. They are homeless for different reasons. But here's a scenario you wouldn't think would take place:

Two able body parents in their early 30's. He has a 4 year college degree in marketing, she went to a technical school in information technology. Both are smart with a willingness to work. They have 3 kids, ages 8, 5 and 2. But guess what, they are both unemployed....for 9 months now.

What would you do? When your unemployment runs out and no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to get a job? How would you feed your family? How would provide shelter?

Unfortunately this family is representative of the new face of homelessness in our community. The college educated family forced to leave their rental home and bounce around from motel to motel with no money for food to feed their children.

We are thankful for all of the partners that support the We've Got Your Back program and help provide food for the weekends for families like this!