New study ranks Indiana & Michigan among bottom 25 in care for homeless kids

by Kelli Cheatham (kcheatham@wsbt.com)

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12 year old Ka'Dayjah McMillan is homeless. She live at South Bend's Center for the Homeless. (WSBT Photo)

By WSBT News1

Story Created: Mar 15, 2009 at 8:54 PM EST

Story Updated: Mar 18, 2009 at 5:38 PM EST

SOUTH BEND — At 12 years old, Ka'Dayjah McMillan is bubbly and bright. She has a 3.8 grade point average, and says she loves to go swimming, read and shop for clothes and shoes. But she's also homeless.

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"My mom had to run away from an abusive relationship," she explains openly.

Ka'Dayjah is one of 13,012 homeless children in Indiana, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness State Report Card. That same report says more than 22,000 kids in Michigan are homeless.

The report card ranks states on everything from the housing and home situations, to how healthy homeless children are and how well they learn.

It ranked Michigan and Indiana 29th and 30th, respectively. The best state for child homelessness, according to the report, is Connecticut. The worst is Texas.

That report says 25 percent of homeless children have witnessed violence. Ka'Dayjah is one of them. Her mother moved Ka'Dayjah and her other three children to South Bend's Center for the Homeless seven months ago.

"It got a little rough at the beginning of the school year," Ka'Dayjah told WSBT. "But I'm starting to learn just to open up a little bit more."

Last Friday Ka'Dayjah told her reading class she lives at the shelter.

Right now, she's one of 55 kids staying there.

"These kids are facing adult problems," said Jacqueline Kronk, Director of Development and Public Relations. "For example, Ka'Dayjah is helping raise her younger brothers and sisters. She's right along with her mom in the awareness that they might not have somewhere to sleep tonight."

That coupled with trying to be a normal kid, is challenging.

"I'll be a teenager pretty soon," said Ka'Dayjah. "I can't really have a birthday party, [and] if I do it would have to be at a park, but I can't really have anybody spend the night."

"You can teach these kids that it's ok to be homeless and you can tell them 'It's not you, it's not your fault,' but they still struggle on a daily basis, and they still try to find answers," Kronk said.

Another statistic from the study shows fewer than 25 percent of homeless children in Michigan and Indiana graduate from high school. But Ka'Dayjah has big goals.

She said she hopes to get into the Culver Military High School, then go to Harvard for law school.

Read the Report.

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