911 for the Homeless

I was just thinking about the issue of homelessness and single parenting, then it occurred to me..... I spent several years as a single Dad and at one point was homeless myself. My mother was a single mother with a 3 year old little girl when she married my Dad and had me. Years later, I wound up marrying a single mother who had a 2 year old little girl nearly 26 years ago. Today, my youngest boy is in a committed relationship with a single mother with a 2 year old son.

There is an alarming trend of couples deciding to live together and have children without being married. This is an extremely unstable position for both people and their children. Given the pressures of raising a children and the financial burdens that can develop, men and women in these no commitment arrangements wind up alone with children to support and often in dire financial need.

I love children and have several that I deeply love and would walk through fire for. When I see scenes like the picture to the right, it just makes me want to cry.

Now I know we have streets that are sometimes filled with professional panhandlers, but this is clearly not always the case. Homeless families comprise roughly 34% of the total U.S. homeless population. Among all homeless women, 60% have children under age 18. Over 92% of homeless mothers have experienced severe physical and/or sexual abuse during their lifetime; with 63% of them reporting that this abuse was perpetrated by an intimate partner. Why don't we have a hotline for these emergencies?

Today, our 911 calls are routed to call centers called PSAPs (Public Safety Answering Points) that can dispatch law enforcement and fire agencies. In my view, the woman and her children shown above are in need of emergency care too, and should be able to call upon emergency resources just as easily. Services that can be dispatched just like our current system delivers today for the other emergency services. The family shown in the picture, and all others like them, are just as important of an emergency as the others involving law enforcement and fire. Why not interconnect the PSAPs with information and resources they can dispatch that can support families in distress and  rehabilitate them?

Let me know your thoughts....