School of Hard Knocks?

Even in this day and age, it is hard for most people to shake their image of who the homeless are: lazy, drunks, dirty, mentally unstable, irresponsible, and more. As much as we hear about how the inbalance in the economy is hurting even the middle-classes, and that everyday, more and more people become homeless, through circumstances beyond their control, there are some statistics in a recent AP article, as reported by KATU, in Portland,that focuses on Oregon, that surprised even me.

With 90 percent of the state's districts counted in the tally,

an estimated 15,517 homeless students attended

public school in the 2006-2007 school year, according to new numbers

released by the state Department of Education.

That's an 18 percent increase over the 2005-2006 school year,

and works out to about 2.8 percent of all public school students.

This is the third consecutive year that

the agency has released numbers

on homeless students, and each year,

the number has gone up.

How can this be in an economy that is supposedly improving? Well, for starters, and as pointed out by most credible economists and public services leaders, the increase in jobs that is driving this supposed upswing in the economy fall disproportionately in low-paying, non-insured occupations, that do not even come close to providing a living wage. In addition, the recent (and building) crisis in the subprime mortgage market has resulted in many heretofore stable homeowners to lose those homes, resulting in an increase in the number of homeless families. Read the complete article here.