The latest annual Conditions of Children in Orange County report, produced by the county\u2019s Social Services Agency and approved last month by the Board of Supervisors, contained some welcome news.<\/p>\n
The county has shown some improvement in prenatal care and mental health care, for example. Some educational gains were noted, such as a rise in kindergarten readiness, increases in math and reading scores among socioeconomically disadvantaged third-grade students, and progress in college readiness among high school graduates. More foster kids were placed in permanent homes.<\/p>\n
But the good news was overshadowed by a raft of troubling trends, including a lack of access to medical care and a high-school dropout rate that approached pandemic-era levels. Drug overdoses, child abuse and chronic hunger were also cited as big concerns.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s focus for now, however, on one particularly knotty issue: Housing insecurity.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a rather dry, technical term that masks the devastating reality it represents. Homelessness. Shelters. Run-down motels. Sleeping rough in cars and parks. Overcrowded rooms. Multiple families crammed into small dwellings. Continually moving from one short-term lodging to another, not always knowing where the next will be.<\/p>\n
According to the report, the number of school-age children living in insecure housing in Orange County surpassed 30,000 for the first time in the past decade. In the 2023-2024 school year, 6.7% of students experienced insecure housing countywide, compared to 5.2% in 2014-2015.<\/p>\n
And keep in mind that these are only the numbers that could be counted; accurate figures are notoriously hard to pin down because of varying definitions used and because families often try to hide their unstable living situations out of shame or fear that their children could be removed. It typically falls to individual schools and teachers to identify the kids living in precarious circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomelessness is very fluid,\u201d said Dr. Sara Marchese, the Social Services Agency\u2019s medical director. \u201cPeople can move in and out of these situations,\u201d and they often fly under the radar.<\/p>\n
Yet, even from the likely incomplete data we do have, we know that the problem is worsening and that the growth in housing insecurity among our youth in Orange County mirrors the trend nationwide. Over the past decade, housing insecurity has increased across the country. Few places have been spared. It\u2019s a problem common to cities, suburbs and rural areas alike, and it affects states large and small.<\/p>\n
Marchese, a pediatrician, emphasized a critical point when considering the prevalence of children living in insecure housing situations. Not only is it a terrible problem on its own, but it is linked to a host of other highly damaging impacts that threaten the well-being and normal development of kids.<\/p>\n
For example, housing insecurity is closely associated with a number of health issues. Children without permanent homes are far more likely to experience chronic disease, malnutrition and mental health challenges.<\/p>\n
Kids without a fixed abode typically have limited access to proper medical care. They frequently move from school to school, and are often absent or tardy. Many come to school hungry. They fall behind academically. The high school dropout rate among housing insecure students is far higher than the norm.<\/p>\n
By almost any measure, when kids experiencing homelessness and unstable living situations are pulled from the data, \u201cthose kids are not faring as well,\u201d said Marchese. \u201cWhat\u2019s challenging is that generally housing insecurity is not an isolated issue. It\u2019s just a cumulative challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what can be done?<\/p>\n
The first step would be to improve the means of identifying children at risk, since early intervention is key. Families experiencing housing insecurity must be brought out from the shadows and guided toward agencies, programs and organizations that can provide assistance.<\/p>\n
We also need to let our elected officials know that protecting and supporting struggling families with children is a top priority. This is more critical than ever, particularly in light of recent events that have put some of the federal funding used for programs that aid needy families with children at risk.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was pausing this funding for five states, including California, because it believed some benefits were going to undocumented immigrants. A federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze, but the matter remains unsettled.<\/p>\n
Despite the extreme difficulty making progress toward reducing the number of children experiencing housing insecurity, Marchese said she is hopeful that there remains a drive to find solutions. She believes there is a growing awareness of the issue, and considers that as \u201ca step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
But many more steps are needed. Indeed, this issue deserves nothing less than our full attention and resolve. The truest measure of a society\u2019s strength and decency lies in the way we care for the most vulnerable among us \u2014 our children.<\/p>\n
Right now, we aren\u2019t consistently living up to even a minimum standard for that test. We must do better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest annual Conditions of Children in Orange County report, produced by the county\u2019s Social Services Agency and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,733,29497,1493,3402,69092,69090,69094,3410,69093,31381,60040,69091,212,611,22273],"class_list":["post-135361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-child-abuse","tag-health-issue","tag-homelessness","tag-housing-insecurity","tag-individual-school","tag-insecure-housing","tag-isolated-issue","tag-kid","tag-marchese","tag-medical-care","tag-mental-health-care","tag-multiple-family","tag-number","tag-orange-county","tag-problem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}