Editor,
The torching of the Youth in Transition drop-in center on Thanksgiving evening requires some sobering self-examination.
I'm familiar with YIT. I've seldom seen an agency accomplish so much with so few resources. YIT serves homeless young people who have fallen through the cracks of mainstream systems of care. It serves young people who cannot comply with programs that require a single set of behavioral standards. It welcomes young people who have been turned away by other agencies and, all too often, their own families.
These are not somebody else's children. They are ours.
And why should their presence surprise anyone? New Mexico has the highest overall and child poverty rates in the nation. One in four children in our state live in poverty.
The single greatest predictor for homelessness is poverty.
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Being homeless is not a criminal act. But homelessness, the systematic creation of extreme poverty in a nation of incalculable wealth, is a criminal failure of our society.
Maybe some of you still don't like YIT and the people it serves. Good, then put them out of business by reforming tax laws that penalize the poor and pamper the wealthy. Fund our schools, improve our foster care system, overhaul our healthcare system, increase the inventory of affordable housing.
Until then, the shortcomings of our nation and state require courageous organizations like YIT.
Seamus O'Sullivan
UNM graduate student
