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The general theme that emerges in these data (consistent with the observations of our
street educators and clinicians in Tegucigalpa) is that the social problems of the market
children stem primarily from the extreme poverty of their families, whereas the social
problems of the abandoned street children result from being essentially family less in the
first place. Neither situation is acceptable, of course, but there is little doubt that the
abandoned street children are the more troubled group (and more comparable to homeless
teens in U.S. cities).
Life in the street has become a generic condition in contemporary society. Almost one-
quarter of homeless people in the various countries are children (persons seventeen and
under), the average age of which is nine. Few street children have escaped emotional,
behavioural, and academic problems, and among those who have serious behavioural
problems, few of the children receive any treatment.
The homeless family population is one source for homeless children and youth.
According to the National Centre for Children in Poverty, New York City witnessed an
astounding 500 percent increase in the number of homeless families within a decade, with
close to 1,000 new families entering the New York City system each month. Today, there
are over 400,000 homeless families living in shelters in the United States (Homes for the
Homeless, NYC 1998).
Homelessness among the poor is directly attributed to three main conditions: (1) reducing
benefits and dropping people from assistance programs; (2) sharp rise in housing costs
due to fall of low-income housing construction and the abolishment of existing single-
room occupancy (SRO); and (3) economic displacement, people pushed out of their jobs
through unemployment, underemployment, and the low-income housing pinch.
According to Vanderstaay (1992), the supply of low-income housing shrank half a
million units for every year of the Reagan administration.
Still, the largest proportion of street children previously were attached to residential
families, not homeless ones, and such youth have either been cast out, voluntarily left
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