A leader emerges from every group and the community decides who can stay and who should leave. It almost seems like the camps are self-segregated because the blacks prefer to live with blacks, the hispanics stick together, drug addicts live with drug addicts and alcoholics attract each other as well. Basically, people seek to live around people they feel comfortable with. The racial barriers are sometimes unimportant when another common interest exists. Children are NOT found in every encampment.
Some camps are too dangerous for children to be safe.
Sometimes kids would come to visit their parents who lived in the camp. Once I met an eight year old girl who said that a homeless women was baby sitting her for the day. Many of the children that visited the camps simply tagged along with a parent who was visiting a homeless friend or handing out food. If a child gets caught living in a shantytown then social services could declare the parents negligent and sever the parental rights. To keep homeless families together children must be hidden from social workers and lied about.