Roanoke Schoolchildren: 200 Homeless and Rising

WDBJ 7 had a truly sad story last week. The number of homeless students in the city of Roanoke is now up to about 200, and is expected to reach 400 by the end of the year.

In the last three months, close to 200 students in Roanoke City have been classified as homeless. It's up 34 percent since last November.

...

"It's a struggle, a lot of families report [say] I didn't want to be here [in the shelter], this is embarrassing," says Horn who often talks with the parents facing financial difficulties.

It's a sign of the times in which we're living. I worry that too many folks in our government still don't understand how bad things really are getting out in the real world. Imagine if even a fraction of the Wall Street bailout money had gone toward addressing this problem--there is no excuse for a nation that remains as wealthy as ours to allow kids to go homeless. After all, it's pretty hard to pull yourself up by the bootstraps when you can't even afford them to begin with.

Please keep stories like this in mind and try to give whatever you can to local homeless shelters and charities.