The Hole In The Net :: essays research papers

Our social safety net has a hole in it. The fibers of the net aredecaying the hole is getting bigger. More mickle are falling through,and the people with the least strength are holding the most of theweight. Three to four million Americans are homeless according to theU.S. surgical incision of Housing and Urban Development, 5.5% can non find jobsaccording to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, and the figure is overtwice that in the 20-24 year old age group, according to the divisionof Education. A very slim minority of these people are sucking off thesystem, but the vast majority just had a bad break. such is the story of Peter and Megan, as told by author Jonathan Kozolin his Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award winner Rachel and HerChildren Homeless Families in America. Peter was a work and shewas a homemaker who raised their five children. They lived in a neat,working class apartment building in New York City. Peter didconstruction for creation housing projects, and had a vast array oftechnical skills and tools I did carpentry. I painted. I could dowallpapering. I earned a maintenance. We spent Sundays walking with ourchildren on the beach. It may sound like this was a happy family,living the American Dream. Perhaps they were -- they were selfsufficient for all of the 12 years that they had been married, they hada firm income, a close and loving family, a home, and a chance fortheir children to do even better than they had done. Then the firestruck. They came racing home after auditory modality the news, only to find thateverything had been destroyed. The children lost their pet dog and cat,Megan lost her grandmothers china, but Peter perhaps 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 inthe blaze. When Kozol first met them, they were living in a welfarehotel in New Y ork, where they had been living for twain 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 price for a week in a New York City one means motel.) In their two room apartment, the entire place is falling