The Hole In The Net :: essays research papers

Our social safety terminate has a hole in it. The fibers of the net bedecaying the hole is acquiring bigger. More people are falling through,and the people with the least military strength are holding the most of theweight. Three to four million Ameri butts are homeless fit to theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 5.5% cannot find jobsaccording to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, and the figure is overtwice that in the 20-24 yr old age group, according to the Departmentof Education. A very shrink minority of these people are sucking off thesystem, but the considerable majority just had a bad break. Such is the story of gibe and Megan, as told by author Jonathan Kozolin his Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book exhibit winner Rachel and HerChildren Homeless Families in America. Peter was a carpenter and shewas a homemaker who raised their five children. They lived in a neat,working flesh apartment building in New York City. Peter didconstruction for earthly con cern housing projects, and had a vast array oftechnical skills and legal documents I did carpentry. I painted. I could dowallpapering. I earned a upkeep. We spent Sundays locomote with ourchildren on the beach. It may sound like this was a happy family, musical accompaniment the American Dream. Perhaps they were -- they were selfsufficient for all of the 12 old age that they had been married, they hada steady income, a close and loving family, a home, and a chance fortheir children to do even better than they had d sensation. Then the firestruck. They came locomote home after hearing the news, only to find that every(prenominal)thing had been destroyed. The children lost their darling dog and cat,Megan lost her grandmothers china, but Peter possibly lost the most histools. Since the fire, he has not had a job, because a carpenter withouttools might as well not have eyes. He explained that for every job hehad, he would add a new tool to his collection. But they all went up int he blaze. When Kozol first met them, they were living in a welfarehotel in New York, where they had been living for two years. They cantget out because federal assistance programs (better known as welfare)tell them that their family limit for an apartment is $366 a month --this with seven family members living in New York City. (In comparison,thats about the rock bottom bell for a week in a New York City oneroom motel.) In their two room apartment, the entire household is falling