As I am continuing to embark on this journey of writing my junior theme, I have continually noticed two major problems that crop up in a lot of my readings. The first problem is that without a proper definition of homelessness, it is very hard to get a direct counting on the amount of homeless people. A term called doubling-up is also something that is over-looked in many counting proceses. Doubling-up is where a family or person no longer has a home and they move in with family or friends. Because there is no proper definition of homelessness, that leads into the second common problem I have seen of it being extremely difficult to get an accurate number on homless people.
It is almost impossible to get an accurate number of homeless people. A major reason why it is so hard is that many people have found different refuges besides formal shelters. Clearly, if people are in shelters, it is easy to count, but those who are on the streets can be constantly moving around and hiding.
Because of this, it is obviously very difficult to get statistics on homeless people in the country and especially homeless children. It is especially difficult with homeless children because they tend to run away or hide places where it would be difficult to find. For example in the book, Ask Me Why I Hurt, by Dr. Randy Christensen, children go to such extremes to hide as to dig a hole in the middle of the desert and call that their home.
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