The Children Are Our Future; but What Does the Future Hold?

The Children are Our Future; but what does the Future Hold?
The issues of poverty, homelessness and welfare have become more popular topic today due to our current recession. These issues have long been ignored or put on the back burner. Now with this demon staring all of us in the face it can no longer be ignored. According to Barbara Ehrenreich in “Too Poor To Make The News,”   the current recession is knocking the working poor down another notch-from the low wage employment and inadequate housing toward erratic employment and no housing at all (325). So how does the working class protect the innocent children from the effects of poverty? Poverty can negatively affect children in many areas of their lives, including education, self -esteem, social well-being, the lack of adequate plumbing and health issues.
My name is Tracey and I will use my family as example of how the current recession has negatively affected the family.   I am a single divorced mother with three small children. Their ages are 12, 9, and the youngest is 8. I live in a moderate neighborhood in the suburbs. For 18 years I have worked a job in retail management and due to the recession the company that I have worked for all these years is now closing. As a result of the company closing I am also losing all of my current benefits.   As Anna Quindlen states in ”Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids,” a study done in San Diego in 1998 found that a third of homeless families had recently had benefits terminated or reduced, and most stated that this was how they wound up on the streets (317).   My family and I are now faced with the cruel reality that we too are now faced with the fact that we are now even more closer to being homeless.
Having my greatest fears now staring me in the face; how is this change going to affect my family. Transitioning from moderate housing, to low income housing or worse a homeless shelter; would this have negative effect on the entire family? Ehrenreich acknowledges Professor....