Austin news: Homeless woman raped with 2 yr old daughter in her arms

[Slappy san]

Originally Posted by southdown

I am in shock - how can a two-year-old be sleeping on the streets in modern-day Austin? Doesn't the city provide shelter for homeless people, especially if they have a child?

KXAN.com - News, Weather, Sports - Austin, TX | Homeless woman raped with daughter in her arms

That headline...and all you can think about is the kid?

[southdown]

Originally Posted by Slappy san

That headline...and all you can think about is the kid?

The shock (and sympathy) was for both concerned - there was no competition on which element was worst, it is all terrible.

Even more sadly, had the child not been involved it would never have even made the news.

It's amazing however that you believe you are able to read thoughts via the internet.

[shaxs]

Originally Posted by traceyr13

I'm not currently practicing as a social worker, but I was in the UT MSSW program, and have many colleagues who work with the homeless and did some work with the homeless myself...so I feel I can confidently say that many (most?) social workers would be saddened and angered by many of the comments on this thread.

Are many people homeless because of drug and alcohol dependency? Yes. For those individuals, must you treat the chemical dependency in order to address the homeless issue? Usually.

But blaming the victim, as has been prevalent on this thread, is a convenient way to absolve society of the responsibility to take more action to address this problem. I can't say I'm shocked by comments like "we should sterilize women like that" or "they are choosing to stay homeless if they don't take advantage of the shelters/programs" because I've heard it all before...but I am saddened.

My wife is a para natal social worker helping chemically dependent women stay off drugs to have their babies and help them get prepared. It saddens me when I hear how many relapse.

[Huckleberry3911948]

Originally Posted by gigi927

Trainwreck is absolutely right. In my younger days, I was a prosecutor in abuse and neglect court in a very impoverished area of Chicago. Basically, I took abused and neglected children away from their parents. Someone has to make CPS aware of a child's bad situation in order for them to get that child in the system. Once a child is in the system and a parent is receiving services from CPS, it is really up to the parent. He/she has to want to help him or herself. With the right level of desire, a very good case worker, constant monitoring and the right combination of services, a parent can right-side their situation. But sadly, in most cases, there are people who just cannot move past their addictions and feeding the addiction is the priority, NOT being a good parent.

As a result, there are many women who have crafty ways of working the system by using their children. ONe woman I will never forget came into my courtroom and had her THIRTEENTH child taken away from her due to drugs, inability to care for the child, prostitution, etc. The judge asked the woman why she kept getting pregnant only to have the children repeatedly taken away from her. She said, "I get welfare until they take the baby away from me. I will keep having babies until they let me keep one." There can be a significant lag time between the time a child is born (or begins to be neglected, in the case of an older child) and the time that CPS gets involved and files a case in court, so she was playing the float and collecting checks during that time so she could buy more drugs. Kid gets taken away, and she goes out and gets pregnant again, and repeats the cycle.

The root of most of these problems is drugs - bottom line. It makes people screw up their priorities, ignore their children, not take advantage of services available to them to fix their lives. It's really very sad.

ditto children are often used as hostages/pawns to get adults what they want. not just welfare people either.

[toxicbrainpoison]

SO sad. This happenend when I first moved into the neighborhood. We have some predators on the streets and already I see jerks luring children with beer and cigarettes, stealing from homes and pimping out young women. Unfortunately the police don't care. Every day I look out my window and see something new. Good thing homeowners are armed in Texas. Unfortunately homeless mothers and children dont have that option.