And theres a cost. Miners die. They were great men. They were awesome men. Thats why melissa lee says shes speaking out. Thank you all. Even though, she says, its caused trouble for her in the county. I was receiving phone calls making ugly comments that i need to shut up. [ticking] why are hundreds of freezing people gathering in the middle of the night in this knoxville parking lot . Whos got number one . Number one. Number two . Theyre here in hopes of seeing a doctor. This is a clinic set up by remote area medical, a charity founded to bring doctors to the amazon, but now its a lifeline for the uninsured here at home. You drove 200 miles to get here . Yes, sir. And slept in this parking lot for seven or more hours . Yes, sir. Welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. Im morley safer. In this edition, we look at the hard times faced by millions of americans during the economic downturn. We begin with American Families falling out of the middle class. The combination of lost jobs and millions of foreclosures at the end of the first decade of the 21st century saw a lot of families homeless and hungry for the first time in their lives, and as scott pelley reported in march of 2011, one of the most disturbing consequences of the recession was the Record Number of children descending into poverty, the largest american generation to be raised in hard times since the great depression. In Seminole County, near orlando, florida, so many kids have lost their homes, school buses now stop at dozens of cheap motels where families crowd into rooms, living week to week. 11yearold destiny corfee joined the line at this motel. I never really noticed what people were actually going through until now. Until were actually going through it too. David and theresa corfee never imagined their family homeless. Together, they were making about 40 an hour detailing expensive cars. There was a threebedroom home, vacations, extras for the kids, but both jobs went, and then the house. Evicted, they found that the homeless shelters wanted to split their family up, boys and girls. That was definitely something that i wasnt gonna have, was being separated at a time like this. I figure at a time like this that we needed to be together more than anything. So david, theresa, destiny, jorge, and chance, moved into their van. George climbed up here on the back seat, and destiny and chance here. I was embarrassed that, like, maybe one of my friends might see me. I dont want anybody to know that i was actually in there. Where was the van parked . It was at a walmart. We would actually go in walmart and clean ourself up before we go to school. Yeah, in the bathrooms. Save some money. How would you do that . I would, like, wash my face, and, like, take a tissue, wash my arms and stuff. We would bring the toothpaste and the toothbrush and the brushes, like, so well go brush our hair in the mirror, and, like, people would see us, and it would be kind of weird, but we worked through it. Tell me about the motel that youre living in now. Well, its a lot better than the van. Yeah. Its really small, though. Two rooms for the five of them. Their possessions, family photos, you name it, went into storage, and they lost it all, seized and sold when they couldnt pay that bill. Most of my stuff was in there. My scooter, my game system, all my games, my clothes. So i lost most of my stuff, so. I had so many of my toys and things. My barbie dolls, clothes, and it was just all gone. Whats the neighborhood like around the motel . Its scary. What do you mean . Like, you hear on the news all the time about, like, shootings, and its all right there. Nationwide, 14 million children were in poverty before the great recession. In march, 2011, the u. S. Census told us its 16 million, up 2 million in two years. That is the fastest fall for the middle class since the government started counting. One of the areas suffering the most is otherwise advertised as the happiest place on earth, the counties around disney world and orlando. Just on highway 192, the road to disney world, 67 motels house about 500 homeless kids. The government counts them homeless if they have only temporary shelter. In Seminole County schools, 1,000 students have lost their homes. How many of you in the last few weeks have gone to bed hungry . At casselberry school, students whose families are at the Poverty Level or slightly above qualify for the free lunch program. We talked with some of those kids with their parents permission. Who can tell me what its like to feel hungry . Its, like, hard. You cant sleep. You just, like, wait. You just go to sleep for, like, five minutes, and you wake up again, and your, like, stomach hurts, and youre thinking, i cant sleep. Im gonna try and sleep. Im gonna try and sleep, but you cant cause your cause, like, your stomachs hurting, and its cause it doesnt have any food in it. And its like a black hole, and sometimes, when i dont eat, my stomach, you can hear it. Like, its, like, growling. You can hear it. Usually we eat macaroni, or we dont or we drink water or tea. My mom will sometimes, like, make food, and then she wont have enough, so at night well just eat cereal or something. Other times, my parents will fight about money cause they dont have enough money to pay the food. We have to sometimes take food from a church. Its hard because my grandmothers also out of work, and we usually get some food from her. Its kind of embarrassing, because the next day, you go to school asking kids if they want this or if they want that. If they have cereal and they havent opened it yet, you go ask them if they want their cereal. We found a lot of families are making a choice between food and electricity. How many of you have had the lights turned off at your house . How do you study when you dont have the lights on at home . We have emergency flashlights, and i usually have to use them. Ill just light candles and sit around in a circle of candles. Candles . Yes, maam . I use candles because my mommy brings some. I go out to the car and turn on the overhead and read out there and study. Ashley rhea raised her hand to add something that we didnt expect. I kind of feel like its my fault that we dont have enough money. I feel like its my fault that they have to pay for me and the clothes that they buy for me. [ticking] coming up, the longterm cost of poverty. This is when children are developing who they are, and their foundation is broken. Thats ahead when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know words really can hurt you . What. . Jesse dont go jesse. No im sorry daisy, but im a loner. And a loner gotta be alone. Heee yawww geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Jesse . You know what i love america . Fine barbecue, good times and zero heart burn. And thats why i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heart burn because it gives me zero heart burn. Prilosec otc the number one dr. Recomended frequent heart burn medicine for nine straight years. You can beat zero herat burn prilosec otc one pill each morning 24hrs, zero heart burn start a team. Join a team. Walk to end alzheimers. Visit alz. Org walk today. [ticking] beth davalos runs the Seminole County programs for homeless kids. Our numbers go up every day. Between 5 and 15 new homeless students a day. Every day . Every day. And she told us Something Else is new. When i first started this program eight years ago, homelessness lasted maybe two, three months. But now with it lasting three, six months, a year, or two years, this is when children are developing who they are, and their foundation is broken. How are these kids doing in school . Theyre struggling. Its much harder. Theyre more at risk of not doing well. Theyre focusing on, how can i help mom and dad . We have so many students that want to quit school and go to work. Beth davalos is working to keep Jacob Braverman on track in school. His family lost this house suddenly in october. When he got off the bus that day, the door was locked. That was the last thing i expected. It wasnt your house anymore. Yeah. His mother, rosa, lost her job, but the eviction was a shock. The bank told rosa she had 30 days, but it was five days later that the cops moved them out. Theres a lot of chaos in foreclosures all across the country because of the sheer number of them. In florida, the counties with the highest foreclosure rates see some of the biggest increases in child poverty. Rosa was suddenly on the street, and like the corfees, she faced splitting up her family. This is what is important isfamily is wherever you are together. It doesnt matter if it is in your house, if it is in one room, or in your vehicle. As long as youre with your family, youre going to make it through all of this thats been going on, all of it. Do you find yourself trying to cheer your mom up . Sometimes, yeah. And when you do that, what do you tell her . Uh, i love you, mom. That always works. Yeah. Rosa, jacob, joey, and the dog are all in one room, right across the street. The neighbors took them in. Weve seen a lot of that in our stories on the recession. Neighbors, even strangers, opening homes to the homeless. We talked to the bravermans at the neighbors house. Theyve been here three months, and that is starting to worry them. I want to give the neighbors their own privacy too, you know . I dont want to be invasive. So you miss your privacy from across the street. What else . Sometimes, you know, i have to go to the bathroom at night, and here i have to be, like, really, really quiet, cause if i wake them up, i dont want to make them upset and get us kicked out. Homeless kids tiptoe in a world of insecurity, hoping to be invisible. People said that i talk too much, and now they say that i dont talk enough and that im really shy, i guess. You think all this has changed you . Yeah, and i havent realized it, but i think ive gotten very mature in a very short amount of time. Look for the homeless in Seminole County, and youll find robert williamss family of five in one motel room. He and his wife lost their tourism jobs several months back. When angel abreau lost his construction job, he and his wife had to split their family among relatives. They see their three Young Children on weekends, and on sunday evenings, when we saw them, the goodbyes are always painful. Destiny corfees family got out of that van and into a motel when her dad found a little day labor to scrape together a deposit on the room. He applied at car washes and at disney world and worked as a bricklayers assistant, but it was nothing steady, and as the hotel bill came due, david was short. He found himself prepared to do nearly anything to keep his family from being split apart by the homeless shelters. So as embarrassing as it was, i sat down with a magic marker, and ive seen these people on the road with these signs before, and i wrote a sign out. What did the sign say . It said, please help, family of five. Every truck that went by, i would holler up out to them or let them see my sign. Hey, do you need any help . You know, can i get a job . Do you need any help . I didnt think that it was gonna have to, like, come down to that. Like, he was actually gonna go and take the sign and show it to people, and i dont want people to know, like, that ihes my dad. Like, i didnt think i dont want to be embarrassed by people. You must have thought that you would never be that guy, the guy with the sign. Never and in a million years did i think that that would be me. And i told my wife, this is america, and america is full of wonderful people, and im gonna go out and see what i can do and see if theres someone out there that can help us. He showed us the sign that eventually caught the eye of a woman who stopped to say she might have a job for him. And sure enough, that phone rang about a week later. She said, david, id like to tell you youre golden, that we have a job for you, and you can start friday. And thats where you got the hat . Thats where i got the hat. The university of central florida. Absolutely. And ive been wearing this hat ever since. Hes a parking attendant. 10 an hour. And thats enough to keep the motel room, but not enough to get out. Jorge dropped out senior year to look for work, but destiny is still being picked up on the School Bus Route for homeless kids. And when things get better again, we know that there are still people struggling, so well be able to help out a lot more, and well understand what theyre going through. This opened your eyes to an america that you didnt know existed . Mmhmm. I canti cant believe it. Like the kids who came out of the great depression, this generation is being shaped by homelessness and hunger, but also by memories of neighbors who opened their homes and of families that refused to be broken. Love you guys. Love you too. Love you, destiny. Love you too. Since our report first aired, the corfee family has been able to move out of the motel, so destiny no longer has to ride the motel school bus. Rosa braverman and her son jacob moved into their own apartment, and in february, 2012, rosa gained certification as a medical assistant. But not all the news is positive. As of march, 2012, 48 of the 60 Seminole CountyPublic Schools operated food pantries on their premises, each of them sponsored by the local community to help students in need. [ticking] coming up, the deadly cost of coal mining. He lost the top of his head. He had an o2 tank impaled through his body. The force was so magnificent, it shot him backwards so fast, it pulled his pants over top of his mining boots. The widows of Harlan County when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] [ticking] coal is used to generate nearly half of our electricity, but all that power comes at a heavy human cost. Back in 2006, there was a spike in american mining fatalities. That year, 47 miners, 6 of them from Harlan County in eastern kentucky, died. It was the deadliest year in more than a decade. As bob simon reported in march of 2007, some miners widows, like melissa lee, believed their late husbands deserved more protection. Jimmy loved the smell of coal. He loved the smell of coal . He would inhale, and he said, do you smell that . It was almost intoxicating to him. It was like a high rush, the smell of coal. So mining wasnt just a job for jimmy. No, it was his second home. He would always say it was time for him to leave me to go to his second wife, which was the mines. Jimmy lee loved his job, but he also knew that mining was just about the only job he could find to support his family. Harlan county is one of the poorest counties in the country. Life revolves around church and family and the mines. Men, hundreds of them, have been dying in the mines here for generations. Fewer have died in recent years, but mining still has the highest fatality rate of any job in the state. Its always been dangerous, and, um. People die. Kent hendrickson is a lawyer who represents mine owners in Harlan County. He agreed to talk to us, but, because of potential lawsuits, he declined to speak about specific accidents. Now, when i was a kid growing up here, it was so commonplace, it was almost accepted. You wouldnt know a miner died unless you read his obituary, and, you know and it was almost a natural death. There wasnt a guy died of a heart attack, or he died in the mines. How would you explain to people who live far from Harlan County why so many people have been killed around here in the last year . As far as i know at this point, its a fluke. So you think its just be a string of bad luck . I think so. That explanation does not sit well with the widows of Harlan County, who held a Memorial Service for their husbands. They were great men. They were awesome men. Nine men died in four separate accidents in 2005 and 2006. The widows told us their husbands would still be alive if the mines had been safe. The deadliest accident took place at the kentucky darby mine. State investigators concluded that methane, undetected, leaked through a wall that had been improperly constructed to seal off an abandoned part of the mine. The gas was accidentally ignited by a blowtorch. The explosion was horrific and killed melissa lees husband, jimmy. He lost the top of his head. He had an o2 tank impaled through his body. The force was so magnificent, it shot him backwards so fast, it pulled his pants over top of his mining boots. It tore his hard hat into 45 different pieces. He laid dead and stepped over top of, not even recognizing it as a human body. He left me with two babies to raise by myself. Jimmys wedding ring was never recovered. He wasnt supposed to die yet. Neither was Stella Morriss husband, bud. He died at Harlan Countys h d mine after an underground coal car ran him over. From the reports, it said that it knocked his body in the bucket. You know, it amputated one leg and crushed the other. With the price of coal up dramatically, Stella Morris and the other widows say some mine operators in Harlan County are sacrificing safety for profit. They say they see indications of that in the official report on the accident. In their report, investigators concluded that the coal car that ran over bud morris was overloaded, obstructing the drivers visibility. Their report also says that bud morris did not receive proper medical treatment from an owner of the mine who had been trained as a medic. They didnt elevate his legs. They didnt do the tourniquets properly. And your understanding is that if hed been given a tourniquet, it might have been different . He would still be here today. He would have lost his legs, but he would still be here today. [ticking] coming up, bob simon goes underground. The tunnel is so long that miners dont walk to work. 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