This morning’s news brought a disturbing statistic: 1 in 3 American children are homeless, and 2 1/2 MILLION kids were without a home sometime during last year–so says the National Center for Family and Homelessness. (For details, read the article in The Guardian.) The two main causes are the impact of domestic violence and lack of affordable housing.
It’s this second cause that shouldn’t exist. In the same news I learned that Candlestick Park in San Francisco is slated to become a luxury shopping center, hotel, and housing. You can bet it won’t be affordable housing! San Francisco is doing the same kind of project there that they’ve done at Hunter’s Point and the shipping yard. The argument for the Candlestick Park venture is that it will create 3000 permanent jobs. I can’t help wondering, though, where those service and hotel workers filling those jobs will live. They won’t earn enough to live at that complex or anywhere else in pricey San Francisco, or down the road in nearby cities, either. If they’re among the many under-employed homeless people, they can’t put a roof over their children’s heads.
I’d like to see the $1 BILLION this project will cost put into something more practical and humane. We can live without another upscale shopping center, hotel, and fancy condos. But how long can our kids survive living on the streets?
Oh, I forgot. That wouldn’t be good business.