A national study naming Oklahoma as among the four worst states for the risk of child homelessness seems almost unbelievable at first. But a closer look shows both big concerns and clear potential for offering help on the local level.
Unfortunately, Oklahoma has an abundance of two key ingredients in child homelessness: teenage pregnancy and poverty. Garfield County, in particular, has a high rate of teens having babies, and teen pregnancies often go hand-in-hand with poverty. In Garfield County, 41 percent of the single-parent households with children under age 18 are living in poverty. And if the children are under age 5, the incidence of poverty is 56 percent.
Poverty doesn’t have to lead to homelessness, but it can. In our part of the county, being homeless doesn’t mean living in a cardboard box or an abandoned, condemned building. More typical in northwest Oklahoma are the “couch homeless” – people who don’t have a place of their own but stay with various friends, relatives and anyone who will take them in for a while.
That is too common in northwest Oklahoma. Imagine a 16-year-old girl, kicked out of school and out of her parents’ home because of her reckless lifestyle. Imagine her pregnant, with no health care, living off friends. That’s one, soon to be two, homeless children.
So, how do we help? Fortunately, Enid is blessed with people and programs that offer aid. The YWCA, Salvation Army and Youth and Family Services offer shelter and advice. Local churches, Hope Outreach, Park Avenue Thrift and others offer clothing and life’s necessities for young mother and child. Enid Community Clinic provides free or low-cost health care. When once-troubled teens are ready to return to school, Enid Public Schools’ Lincoln Academy offers a more customized school setting, with extra support for reaching goals.
The help is here in Enid, but the helping programs need community support. One positive outcome of the negative headlines about Oklahoma and child homelessness is if readers make a commitment to help at least one of these helping agencies. That support can be time given or dollars given through the United Way or individually to a local organization.
We live in a caring community and region. Don’t miss the chance to prove that once again.
